Our Wine Choice: Manuel Girard Morgon Psychédélique 2022

Our Wine Choice this week is a delicious find that stood out among the 400 Beaujolais wines that I tasted over the past month. It’s a pure gamay from Morgon, one of Beaujolais’ 10 cru, where granite-rich soils tend to result in some of the deepest and most robust wines from the region.

The Manuel Girard Morgon Psychédélique 2022 is unsurprising in its intensity and length. The warm 2022 vintage has produced wines with excellent concentration and balance across the board. What stood out was the seductive perfume of Psychédélique: it’s full of purple fruit, purple flower and mint aromas, as well as having super-fine and supple tannins, in comparison with the firmness of many other 2022 Morgon wines. What makes it even more impressive is the fabulous flavor concentration, at a very low 11.5 percent alcohol.

It’s only the second vintage of new producer Manuel Girard, who make red wines from Morgon and Fleurie as well as some chardonnay from about two hectares of vineyard holdings, which are organic in conversion. They might not be widely available, but this is a producer to keep an eye on.

– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor