Who makes it
In 1992, Jean-Marc Burgaud took over his in-law's vineyards in Côte du Py, a named site within the Morgon appellation of Beaujolais. His domaine, founded in 1989, is built around Gamay and the differences between its bottles: Beaujolais-Villages, Régnié, Morgon Côte du Py, Javernières and James.
The range keeps the grape recognisable while changing its shape from one label to the next. Beaujolais-Villages is supple and silky. Régnié brings darker fruit with saline and mineral notes. Morgon Côte du Py adds perfume, spice, weight and fine granular tannin. Javernières comes from a half-hectare clay parcel, while James blends several terroirs and develops further complexity with age.
Where it grows
Côte du Py places Gamay on one of Morgon's most closely identified sites. The name on the label therefore points to a specific hillside wine, not simply to the wider Beaujolais region. Burgaud's Morgon Côte du Py receives a longer whole-berry carbonic maceration than the general range, lasting 12 to 15 days, and the finished wine carries more weight, perfume and persistence than the open Beaujolais-Villages.
Régnié sits elsewhere in the range, with silky aromas and a darker, more mineral register. The labels separate appellations and parcels, so the change from one bottle to another can be followed through texture, fruit, tannin and finish.
How it is made
The cellar
Burgaud uses semi-carbonic maceration with whole berries for roughly six to fifteen days, depending on appellation. Morgon receives 12 to 15 days. Whole berries help preserve the fragrant, fruit-driven character associated with Gamay, while the longer Morgon period accompanies the wine's greater weight and fine tannin.
Destemming changes with the vintage and the climat, so the cellar method is adjusted to the fruit rather than applied as a fixed formula. Wines spend four to five months in tank, and oak maturation, mostly in old barriques, supports the velvety texture recorded across the Gamay range without turning the wines into an oak exercise.
What they make
Beaujolais-Villages is the broadest and most immediately inviting bottle in the recorded range. Its 2017 tasting showed supple aromatics, a full and round palate, silky texture, growing fruit and faint salinity.
Régnié moves into darker fruit and mineral detail. Its aromas are silky and less overt, while saline notes meet the fruit and a touch of licorice remains on the finish.