Michel Guignier

Story

Vine grower and winemaker in Villié Morgon, in the heart of the AOC Morgon appellation area, Michel’s passion for making ‘real’ wines has been his guiding inspiration in his craft.
His ‘neo-traditional’ Morgon are the best illustration of this. Tenderly crafted, his wines are elegant and harmonious while retaining the stamp of their terroir.

To make his wine in the most natural way possible Michel has had a complete re-think of today’s approach, going back to the common sense of yesteryear, letting his vines live, all the while paying close attention to their development.
Why this preference for natural wines? Not only to protect the environment but also so that you can enjoy a unique, living wine that is quite simply the fruit of the earth.

"Too many chemicals prevent the terroir from coming through in the wine." Explains this expert in quality wines.
So Michel Guignier concentrates on the basics to get the best from his vineyards.
In addition to grassing between the rows, shallow plugging and composting for over ten years now, the vines are hard pruned to keep yields to a minimum. The whole bunches of grapes are hand picked.
The Neo-tradition range is the fruit of techniques that respect both the vines and the soil, bringing you the pleasure of enjoying a wine with character.
Michel Guignier uses natural materials, including wood, to mature his wines. He presses the grapes using a wooden press, resulting in a pure juice that is perfectly suited to maturing in oak barrels on their lees. This method of yesteryear, combined with know-how that has been garnered over the years, gives wines steeped in ‘terroir’

Michel’s neo-traditional collection of wines is a celebration of life and living, getting together with friends and family. Enjoy his range of Morgon to suit every mood.
Each wine has a tale to tell, of round mouth feel and finesse, to be lived and enjoyed rather than told. Red fruit, blackcurrant, raspberry, blackberry, subtle hints of kirsch intermingling with rich, flavorsome spices combine in your mouth so that eight hours, eight days, eight years after enjoying it, the print of this wine will still be on your palate.
Michel is the author and crafter of this wine, which is refined while remaining natural, brilliant but not showy, a wine for all to enjoy.

Morgon cuvée bio-vitis
Cellaring: 1 to 8 years
This wine is made using the 100% Gamay grapes from old vines, which are slowly and gently pressed in an old wooden press. The use of this technique means that the wine can be matured in oak barrels on their lees. Over the months the nourishes and protects the wine so that the characteristic flavors that the terroir gives the wine can develop to the fullest.

Domaine des Amethysts
For 10 years now, Michel has been developing close partnerships with the most innovative Beaujolais and Mâconnais wine producers.
As an independent wine broker and winemaker in his own right, he has built himself a sturdy reputation in both fields with both private individuals and with professionals including the famous French chef, author and food columnist, Jean-Pierre Coffe particularly for his collection of neo-traditional Morgon.

To that effect, he created Domain des Amethysts in the heart of the Beaujolais vineyards. It offers an exclusive selection of AOC wines that each expresses its own particular terroir in its personality with authentic aromas and flavors. This particular trait is very important to Michel, as he expects his partners to respect the vines, soil and nature as he does. It is only through this that he feels he can bring you the pleasure of a unique wine.

The selection criteria for the Domain des Amethysts wines include the quality of the terroir, the vines themselves and how they are trained and looked after, not forgetting the technical and human means that are used to bring you quality wines. Michel Guignier is particularly attached to each of these points because he believes that combined they are the only way to bring you wines that are really representative of their own appellation.

The Domain des Amethysts wine list includes:
Mâcon Villages Blanc, Morgon, St Amour, Chiroubles and Brouilly.

Winemaker
Michel Guignier
Michel Guignier
Overview
Wine Maker Michel Guignier is a fourth generation vigneron in Villié Morgon, in the heart of the AOC Morgon appellation in Beaujolais. Following in the footsteps of the famed “Gang of Four” in Morgon, Guignier is committed to producing wines in the most natural way possible in order to both protect the environment and create wines that are alive and transmit a sense of place. He is in the process of slowly converting his estate to full organic certification, though has been planting grass and herbs between the rows as well as ploughing and composting for many years.
Country France
Region Beaujolais
Appellation Morgon

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