Jean-Marc Burgaud has been dubbed ‘Monsieur Côte du Py’ by Bourgogne Aujourd’hui magazine and for good reason. Jean-Marc’s eponymous Beaujolais estate boasts seven hectares of vines in Morgon's famed ‘Côte du Py’ vineyard, 4.5 of which are at the summit. These gobelet-trained vines were planted between 1940 and 1974, at a high density, using massal selection. “Gamay needs high density to reduce its natural vigour,” says Jean-Marc, whose obsession with quality means working exclusively with his own, estate-grown grapes. Coupled with what Jean-Marc calls ’la vraie vinification Beaujolaise’, this accounts for the quality and style of these striking wines. There are no set recipes here. Jean-Marc makes judgements based on an intimate knowledge of the grapes and his extensive winemaking experience. “We don’t make wine with computers, we do wine by hand!” he states emphatically. Like his other wines, Jean-Marc’s ‘Côte du Py’ is aged in concrete. “Gamay has a difficult relationship with oak,” he says. The ‘Côte du Py’ is one of the few outcrops of decomposed blue rock in Beaujolais (Côte de Brouilly is another), creating wines of greater structure than many might associate with this region. The intensity from Jean-Marc’s vines on the south-facing Côte du Py’ slope, coupled with the freshness and balance from his vines on the plateau, exemplify why this hill is so famous, and why Burgaud is held in such high esteem.