Anthony Thévenet:
Apart of the new guard of Cru Beaujolais!
Alongside the likes of Justin Dutraive, Pierre Cotton, Yann Bertrand, Jules Metras and Keke Descombes; Anthony Thévenet forms part of the young new guard of vigneron, defending the purity of Cru Beaujolais.
Neighbour to Domaine Lapierre and Jean Foillard in Villié-Morgon, Anthony Thévenet stands proud amongst the 40-153 year old vines he inherited from his late grandfather in 2010 in the small town of Douby.
That same year he began working alongside Jean Foillard & George Descombes in the vineyard and in the cellar as their apprentice. While Thévenet released his first vintage in 2013, he has honed his skills and passion for vin naturel for almost 7 years in the presence and guidance of Decombes and Foillard...
Morgon - Vielles Vignes (Old Vines)
In 2014, Anthony acquired a plot in Côte du Py, Morgon. This sub-region is in the heart of Beaujolais and widely considered one of the true jewels of Beaujolais. 2015 saw Anthony add to his holdings by securing a 0.7ha patch of Beaujolais-Villages and in 2017 he started farming 2.5ha of Chénas.
True to his teachings, Anthony works organically throughout his vineyards with no trace of chemical inputs.
The landscape is largely of iron-rich sand and granite, locally known as "roche pourrie" a.k.a “rotten rocks”. Although these are shallow soils, the vines dig deep to find moisture and as such are all dry grown, with no irrigation. The yield, age and health of these vines are testament to the care they receive from Thévenet, who meticulously tends to them by hand, tilling the soil himself.
All fruit is hand-picked and hand-sorted directly in the vineyard, anything unworthy is then thrown to mulch. Depending on vintage, gravity fed fruit sees carbonic maceration as bunches for anywhere between 8-25 days. Wild fermentation and maturation are carried out in either old large format oak or concrete vats and always finished without correction, unfined and unfiltered.
Along with much of central France, Beaujolais saw an aggressive bout of scattered hail in 2016 which devastated most of the appellation, but especially destructive towards Fleurie, Chiroubles and Morgon.
By the end of September whilst temperatures rose, it was clear that 2016 would be a classic vintage, producing wines with good depth, healthy acidity levels and noteworthy balance. The problem, of course, is that in many instances there simply wouldn’t be much of them.
2016 Anthony Thévenet Beaujolais Villages
Vine age; 50 - 78 years old
30 hl/ha
Hand picked as bunches at an elevation of 230m on sandy soils with a top layer of gravel. To retain freshness and purity, a short carbonic maceration in concrete vats for 8 days, later followed by full natural malolactic fermentation in concrete also.
The majority remained in concrete for maturation on lees whilst a third was sent to old 600L demi-muids for 3 months.
The resulting wine was then blended and sent to bottle without fining, filtration and finished with less that 10mg/l of SO2 added.
2016 Anthony Thévenet 'Cuvée Julia' Cote du Py
Vine age; 80 - 93 years old
25 hl/ha
'Cuvée Julia' sees its 2nd vintage in 2016. Named after Anthony's first daughter who was born the same year of Thévenet's first release from the famed Cote du Py.
Elevated at 260m on crumbling granite and schist soils, Gamay is again picked as bunches for carbonic maceration of 20 days in concrete vats, here it completes full natural malolactic fermentation.
The resulting wine is aged in old 225L Hogsheads for 7 months before being sent to bottle without fining, filtration and finished with less that 10mg/l of SO2 added.
2016 Anthony Thévenet Morgon Vieilles Vignes
Vine age; 80 - 153 years old
34 hl/ha
Handpicked as bunches from his late grandfather's old vines from an elevation of 250m on sandy soils with schist and blue granite. Gravity fed to concrete vats for a carbonic maceration of 20 days, here it completes full natural malolactic fermentation.
The resulting wine is matured in old 225L Hogsheads for 7 months before being sent to bottle without fining, filtration and finished with less that 10mg/l of SO2.