Notify me
2022 Régnié “Grain & Granit”
Jean Paul et Charly Thévenet
After an internship with the Lapierres just up the street, a teenaged Charly Thévenet convinced his father, Jean Paul, to abandon herbicides and start plowing his vineyards. More than twenty years later, Charly continues to carry the family domaine forward, honing farming and winemaking to produce cru Beaujolais that is purer and more delicious with each passing vintage. His Régnié has always had an intensity and concentration from ninety-year-old vines planted directly into granite bedrock, but in 2022 it is also lithe, juicy, and dangerously thirst-quenching. A change to all-tank aging, lower sulfur, plus a Beaujolais vintage for the ages has resulted in one of his finest releases to date.
—Anthony Lynch
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2022 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Gamay |
Appellation: | Régnié |
Country: | France |
Region: | Beaujolais |
Producer: | Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet |
Winemaker: | Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet |
Vineyard: | Planted in 1932 and 1946, 3 ha |
Soil: | Granite |
Aging: | Aged in concrete tanks, no fining or filtration |
Farming: | Biodynamic (practicing) |
Alcohol: | 14% |
More from this Producer or Region

2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
France | Beaujolais
Leave it to Breton to take summer heat and turn it into a light summer breeze in a glass.

2023 Chénas “Les Blémonts”
France | Beaujolais
Structured yet full of energy, with notes of blueberry, spice, and other things nice.

2023 Chénas “Chassignol”
France | Beaujolais
A finessed, mineral-driven beauty from hundred-year-old vines at the highest point in Chénas.

2023 Régnié “Grain & Granit”
France | Beaujolais
Here is a rich, bold Régnié, saturated with luscious fruit and earthy spice.

2023 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
France | Beaujolais
This Fleurie beautifully combines high-toned finesse with a potent depth. Can a wine be delicately intense?

2023 Côte-de-Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
Loads of fun—juicy, round, structured, yet always elegant and focused. A classic favorite.

2023 Fleurie
France | Beaujolais
Light and living, charged with herbs, cranberry, and strawberry.

2023 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
France | Beaujolais
If Beaujolais were Burgundy, we might consider Morgon to be Vosne-Romanée, with its haunting perfume and silky texture, the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove.

2021 Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge”
France | Beaujolais
Charly Thévenet and his father, Jean Paul, now bottle a range of five different wines in their cellars in Villié-Morgon

2022 Régnié “En Voiture Simone”
France | Beaujolais
The high-toned nose suggests an absolutely electric wine, full of delicate florals and tart berries, and the juice hits the palate like a dreamy cloud of Gamay.
About The Producer
Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet
Jean-Paul Thévenet is the third generation to produce wine at his family estate in Morgon, but as a young man he took the domaine in an unexpected direction. In the early 1980s Beaujolais was flooded with commercialized wine, pushing winemaker and viticultural prophet Jules Chauvet to invoke a return to more traditional practices. Jean-Paul and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, and Jean Foillard, soon took up the torch of this “natural wine” movement.
Known as “Paul-Po” among friends, Jean-Paul is reserved yet fun-loving. He farms his small five-hectare domaine with his son, Charly, and since 2008 the two have taken the domaine to the next level by adopting organic and biodynamic viticultural practices.
About The Region
Beaujolais
After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.
The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.
Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.
More from Beaujolais or France
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Les Blémonts”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Chassignol”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2023 Morgon
M. & C. Lapierre France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais MAGNUM
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2023 Vin de France Blanc “Perle de Gamay”
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte de Brouilly MAGNUM
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte-de-Brouilly
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
2023 Moulin-à-Vent “Sous la Roche”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Les Blémonts”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Chassignol”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2023 Morgon
M. & C. Lapierre France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais MAGNUM
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2023 Vin de France Blanc “Perle de Gamay”
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte de Brouilly MAGNUM
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2023 Côte-de-Brouilly
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
2023 Moulin-à-Vent “Sous la Roche”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch