Notes from Grand Cru Selections:

"The lieu-dit, Charbonnières, sits at 460 meters (1,500 feet) in altitude and faces directly east. The parcel is planted to high density, free-standing, gobelet vines. The Charbonnières climat is nestled in the forest and the aspect is formed as an amphitheater high up in the mountains of Beaujolais. The bordering forest forms a natural clos around the parcel. It’s an east facing parcel with part of the vineyard facing north and the other side facing south. The land has been farmed organically for nearly 20 years and is by far the most labor intensive of all their parcels. The vine age varies and the oldest vines are over 60 years old while the youngest were replanted 30 years ago.

While visiting Beaujolais in 2013, Michele Smith met David Chapel rather serendipitously, when Mathieu Lapierre asked David, who was working at Domaine Lapierre at the time, to lead her tasting. C’était un coup de foudre!  Shortly after, David moved to NYC to be closer to Michele, who at the time was wine director at Michelin-starred, Brooklyn Fare. After putting in a few years in NYC, he wooed her back to his beloved granite slopes of Beaujolais to embark on a path to become vignerons together. Vinifying their first vintage at Lapierre in 2016, they soon after found their family home and cellars in the village of Régnié-Durette and got to work. Today, the Chapel’s farm 7.5 hectares of old, gnarly vines on the high slopes of Beaujolais, divided between the crus Chiroubles, Fleurie and their home village of Régnié."