History
Domaine Joseph Chamonard is a small estate in Corcelette, on the outskirts of Villié-Morgon in Beaujolais. There, Geneviève Chamonard and her husband, Jean-Claude Chanudet, tend 4.5 hectares spread across the best sub-areas of the Morgon cru, plus a few plots in Fleurie. Joseph Chamonard, who died in the early 1990s, was a disciple of Jules Chauvet, spiritual father of the natural wine movement, which was also embraced by the region's legendary winemakers Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton and Jean-Paul Thévenet.
Minimal intervention
Chanudet, who has looked after the vineyard and the winemaking ever since, was a childhood friend of Marcel Lapierre and is also a keen advocate of minimal sulphur and of avoiding any chemical treatment in the vineyard. Geneviève and Jean-Claude's vines average around 80 years old and, as in most of Morgon, the soil is decomposed granite with schist in some sections. Winemaking here is traditional: semi-carbonic fermentation with whole bunches in large wooden vats.
