Why it matters
The producer
Mommessin is a Burgundy-origin house whose present work is centred on Beaujolais. Jean-Marie Mommessin founded it at Grange Saint-Pierre in 1865; today its wines place Gamay beside named cru appellations, moving from a bright organic Beaujolais to more structured bottles from selected sites.
The house’s history runs from the Mâconnais to present-day Beaujolais. In 1932, Mommessin acquired Clos de Tart, an event it presents as placing the business in the heart of Burgundy; after more than a century in the Mâconnais, it transferred its head office to Quincié-en-Beaujolais. Its current role is described as that of a viniculteur, joining plot selection and grower partnerships to cellar decisions, which helps explain a range built around both regional Gamay and site-specific cru wines.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Quincié-en-Beaujolais sits at the foot of Mont Brouilly, in a region closely associated with Gamay. On a label, Beaujolais signals the broad regional expression of the grape, while names such as Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent and Côte-de-Brouilly narrow the address to cru territory and bring a more developed tannin frame or darker fruit profile.
Mommessin describes Beaujolais’s emblematic subsoil as very old decomposed granite, a ground it considers well suited to Gamay. The 2024 Morgon Côte du Py comes from two selected parcels of roughly 8,000 square metres each, facing west and southwest on 30% slopes; the resulting wine is described as mineral, long and shaped by silky tannins.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Mommessin links vine selection, plot choice, pruning, budding and green harvesting to controlled yields and concentrated fruit. Its stated approach also limits plant-health products and favours low intervention, while individual wines receive markedly different cellar treatment. The 2024 organic Beaujolais combines destemmed fruit macerated for 8–10 days with a semi-carbonic portion macerated for 5–8 days, then rests on fine lees in stainless steel and concrete. By contrast, the 2021 Moulin-à-Vent is fully destemmed, macerated for 25 days and aged for ten months on fine lees in used oak, building more grip and breadth without making oak the dominant flavour.
Wines to know
The range in view
Splendeur Nature begins the documented range with organically farmed Gamay plots. The 2024 Beaujolais is ruby-coloured, red-fruited and fresh, its short macerations and vat ageing keeping the body light to medium and the fruit crisp. Morgon Côte du Py takes Gamay into a longer, more mineral register, with length and supple tannin from its selected hillside parcels.
The Grandes Mises cru wines use longer vinifications and délestage, a process that draws juice off before returning it to the skins, for bottles intended to develop in cellar. The 2022 Côte-de-Brouilly is 100% Gamay Noir, fermented as whole grapes in concrete for about 15 days and aged on fine lees in vat; blackcurrant, blueberry and black plum meet a chalky texture. The 2021 Moulin-à-Vent brings floral and mineral notes, black fruit, fudge and spice, followed by tender, silky tannins.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the 2024 organic Beaujolais Splendeur Nature. It is Gamay from organically farmed plots, made through a split between destemmed and semi-carbonic maceration, then aged on fine lees in stainless steel and concrete. Expect intense ruby colour, red-fruit aroma, crisp fruit on the palate and pronounced freshness. It introduces the house’s Beaujolais focus without the darker fruit, longer maceration or more developed tannin of the cru bottlings.