Domaine Chapel
BEAUJOLAIS, FRANCE
Domaine Chapel is a Beaujolais estate founded by David Chapel and Michele Smith-Chapel in the cru village of Régnié. The Chapels produced their first wine—a 2016 Juliénas “Côte de Bessay”—in partnership with Mathieu and Camille Lapierre, winemakers and owners of acclaimed Morgon estate Domaine Lapierre.
David and Michele met in 2013 while David was working at Domaine Lapierre, and Michele had been working as a sommelier in varied Michelin-starred restaurants in New York. The two relocated to Beaujolais in 2015 to build their domaine from scratch. In 2018, they added two new cuvées to their repertoire: a Fleurie and a Chiroubles produced from their own 7 acres of vineyards. They work their land by hand, organically—not only because they believe strongly in natural farming but because they are raising their daughters in the middle of those vines.
The Wines
Chiroubles
variety: gamay soil type: pink granite & sandstone avg vine age: 55 years
This wine comes off of the Chapel’s two steep, high-altitude Chiroubles plots in the lieux-dits Saint-Roch and Poullet. The vines in each are east-facing, gobelet-trained, and planted to high density. The whole bunches undergo semi-carbonic maceration, fermenting with indigenous yeasts, and are pressed after 3 weeks. The resulting wine ages for 8 months in fiberglass tanks before being bottled unfiltered.
Domaine Chapel in the News
The essential producers, bottles and methods that define one of France’s most beloved red wines. Read More…