Marcel Lapierre dies at 60
Marcel Lapierre’s wines have brought me much pleasure. When I bring out one of his wines, with the beautiful script label and red wax capsule, my wife is always instantly happy. They are the rarest of wines, serious and structured, ready to drink now or later, with a few years age on them. They are made from organic (and horse-tilled) vineyards with minimal intervention in the cellar, including sulfur. But what really makes them rare is that they are also affordable: I bought a case of his Morgon 2009s for $19.95 a bottle. (find this wine)
So it is small wonder on this basis alone that he attracted a wide following among winemakers–beyond Beaujolais and even beyond France–as well as consumers. Add to this his infectious bonhomie as Tim Atkin described him in Saveur: “Lapierre is just Lapierre, a big, hulking, witty chunk of humanity with enough enthusiasm and joie de vivre for half-a-dozen men.”
Yesterday, sad news came from Morgon that Lapierre had died too young, at the age of 60 from melanoma. His son Mathieu has been active in the cellar for a number of vintages and will, presumably, carry on the tradition of crafting these supremely pleasurable wines.
On October 13th, 2010 at 1:44 pm ,Tim McDonald wrote:
Dr TC, nice comments and I had a chance to meet him once, great guy and left us way too soon and too young. I am going to buy a bit of his Morgon while in SF today…Cheers to Marcel!
On October 13th, 2010 at 4:55 pm ,Richard Shaffer wrote:
I picked up that exact bottle and was drinking it with great pleasure last evening!
Richard
On March 6th, 2011 at 7:02 pm ,Weekly reflections of a wine lover – #59 wrote:
[…] read that Marcel Lapierre has passed away. Especially a region like Beaujolais needs a person like Marcel. Someone with integrity and passion showing there’s more to the region than lawsuits. […]