Nicolas Chemarin - Marchampt, France
Nicolas up high
GREAT WINES YOU NEED TO KNOW
“It sometimes takes a new mind
revealing the unforeseen”
(From a few years ago.)
What can we say? Gamay can be great:
Fresh and plush or firm and age-worthy; we've had remarkable twenty-plus year-old bottles, while some 2010's and '11's are perfection in your glass right now.
Beaujolais these days has become one of the most dynamic, compelling wine regions in Europe. (Editor’s note: still is all these years later!) Led by a small group of young, innovative wine-making "blue-collar artists", a new history is being written to firmly place Beaujolais in the ranks of the world's more elite wines. The region's train-wrecked reputation, initially by inglorious waves of suspect Beaujolais Nouveau rushed over the ocean, was further wrecked by an unending proliferation of mundane, flavorless, overcropped wines from substandard terroir manufactured by warehouse winemaking, or bottlings too flavored, with production means to coax, coach, cajole or add to an idea of the "market" in armies of mass-produced versions (psheew!).
A few years back, E&R helped introduce one of these articulate visionary leaders: the young Paul-Henri Thillardon at Chenas, a kind of "ground zero" terroir for part of the rise of the region. Paul-Henri has now been discovered now by some wine lovers in the USA and in Europe.
Later, now way back in 2011, we had heard good things about another age twenty-something winemaker, Nicolas Chemarin. He was hard at work in a hinterland of Beaujolais, hamlet of Marchampt; population less than 50. Nicolas's winery/house is in the Beaujolais-Villages appellation; in effect an often belittled zone both undervalued and widely misunderstood. As the late Marcel Lapierre energized Morgon, Paul-Henri Thillardon is redefining Chenas, Nicolas is similarly already on his way to revealing the unforeseen class and potential hidden under the blanketed reputation of the weak-kneed "Beaujolais-Villages" appellation.
It is extraordinary when wines emerge at unexpectedly high levels of excitement and potential from so-called marginal zones, or parts of regions outside their sweet spots. The stirring wines now being made from Spain's Bierzo region, or the incredible Champagne from the Aube in the last decade are examples along the lines of Thillardon in Chenas and now Nicolas in Marchampt. It sometimes takes a new mind with a different perspective on the possible to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Ultimately a place is about the people.
Arriving on the snowy seventh of February (From 2013)
The first of our two visits with Nicolas Chemarin at Marchampt this year was on a snowbound morning in February. Snowjolais; just think, 4-5 inches of snow, no plows, steep hills, wind blowing, no snow tires or shovels or scrapers, sans gloves and boots, hard to find, everything covered by snow... when we finally arrived (having passed by three times) only finding his place by Nicolas wildly waving to us from his house well above the road, we left our skidding-off-the-drive car skidding back into the road for a slippery wet-footed walk up up up...
Exuberant, keen and personable, the quick-to-smile Nicolas Chemarin greets us in the snow with handshakes and brilliant cheery smile, along with a look of concern as we slide around; his small dog going bonkers (yo dog, never seen Americans before??) Our busy morning with him, later joined by his wife Gwen and his papa Lucien, began in the cellar with glasses in hand. Snow, who cares?
Nico auspiciously was born on the eve of a Beaujolais nouveau harvest. He is of the fourth winemaking generation of his family. Though Nicolas is young, he's incorporated into his old school winery the best of tradition in the cellar with the wisest of modern know-how in the vineyards. Nicolas started by helping to make wine with his father, then at another nearby winery, next winemaking school in Mâcon. Finally Nicolas took over from his father in 2005. The first step he took was to create his own label (Lucien, Nico’s father, makes his own wines too, under his own label Domaine des Villiers) to begin following his own vision. His property is small: only several acres of farmland and vineyards scattered across the nearby steep hills. Production is miniscule averaging around 700 cases a year. Via our "Almost Direct Imports" program, we are the first in the USA to offer his wines. That'll change—guaranteed. (Since this article, it has. Nicolas now has a “National Importer” but we continue to bring his wines directly to Oregon with our import partner. We have since visited the winery four more times and Nicolas came for the first time to visit Portland in 2018 as part of E&R’s first “Cruvolution” week along with Guillaume Chanudet and Julien Duport, two other winemakers we work directly with and have been first in America to bring their wines in.)
For many years his and other families in the Marchampt sector of the Beaujolais-Villages appellation produced Beaujolais commercially. While there were some local wines of value and appeal, the area was never highly regarded. Nicolas realized his family's terroir—its granite soils, altitude and exposures—had all the ingredients for making wonderful wines. He has instituted important changes in the care and health of his vineyards while moving his farming toward organic principles. A man close to the earth, Nicolas follows the cycles of the moon in some of his decisions from farming to bottling. He notes plants and animals are sensitive to its activities in relation to earth. All these factors combine to bring the Chemarin wines closer to pure nature and what the land provides. Lastly, he uses only a touch of sulphur (far less than most) at bottling to held secure balance and freshness while avoiding frailty, a failing of some non-sulfured, natural wines of the region.
"i love to drink wine myself,
i'm looking for fruit and minerality, that is my style'
-Nicolas
When in stock, wines from this producer appear below. Click on each wine for more detail.
