France · Mâconnais

Mommessin

A Burgundy-origin house now based beneath Mont Brouilly, Mommessin explores Gamay from bright organic Beaujolais to more structured cru bottlings.

The producer

Mommessin began in 1865 at Grange Saint-Pierre, a former Abbey of Cluny outbuilding in southern Burgundy, and is now headquartered in Quincié-en-Beaujolais at the foot of Mont Brouilly. Gamay sits at the centre of its Beaujolais work: decomposed granite, selected parcels and cru appellations carry the grape from crisp regional wine toward darker fruit, mineral notes and silky tannin.

The 2024 organic Beaujolais Splendeur Nature brings ruby colour, red fruit and freshness through a mix of destemmed and semi-carbonic maceration, followed by fine-lees ageing in steel and concrete. Morgon Côte du Py adds length and mineral character from steep west- and southwest-facing parcels, while Côte-de-Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent bring chalky texture, black fruit, spice and a broader tannin frame.

Known for

Beaujolais Gamay, from fresh organic Beaujolais to cru wines from Morgon, Côte-de-Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent.

Notable facts

The story

The Key From Grange Saint-Pierre

In 1865, Jean-Marie Mommessin established his wine business at Grange Saint-Pierre in southern Burgundy, a former outbuilding of the Abbey of Cluny. The founding address supplied a physical object that stayed with the house: the key of Grange Saint-Pierre later became Mommessin’s emblem. More than a century after its early Mâconnais years, the business transferred its head office to Quincié-en-Beaujolais beneath Mont Brouilly, where Gamay now drives much of the range. The key remains the sign carried from the old Cluny outbuilding into bottles of Beaujolais, Morgon, Côte-de-Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent.

From the atlas

Mommessin

At A Glance

Mommessin began in southern Burgundy in 1865 and is now based in Quincié-en-Beaujolais, below Mont Brouilly. Gamay drives its Beaujolais bottles: regional wine brings red fruit and freshness, while Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent and Côte-de-Brouilly add darker fruit, firmer shape and longer finishes.

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.

Place

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.

Soil And Site

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.

Story

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.

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

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.

In The Glass

Across the range, the aroma sequence moves from red fruit in the organic Beaujolais toward blueberry, dried cherry and rhubarb in Côte-de-Brouilly, then black fruit and spice in Moulin-à-Vent. On the palate, the regional wine is defined by crisp fruit and freshness, while the cru wines carry more texture: chalk in Côte-de-Brouilly, mineral length in Morgon and a supple, fuller frame in Moulin-à-Vent. Fine-lees ageing keeps the finishes savoury and textural rather than sweet or heavily oaked.

A Bottle To Understand It

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.

Anecdote

In 1865, Jean-Marie Mommessin established his wine business at Grange Saint-Pierre, a former outbuilding of the Abbey of Cluny in southern Burgundy. The building was not simply a historical address: its key later became the house emblem. Mommessin still uses that key as a visible link to the place where Jean-Marie began the business. The founding site sits behind a portfolio now associated above all with Beaujolais Gamay, yet the emblem on the label reaches back to the old Cluny outbuilding where the house first took shape.

Final Word

Mommessin is most clearly approached through the change in Gamay from one bottle to the next: red fruit and freshness in organic Beaujolais, mineral length in Morgon, chalky dark fruit in Côte-de-Brouilly and a more layered floral-and-spice profile in Moulin-à-Vent. The labels carry a Burgundy beginning into a Beaujolais-focused range.

Sources

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