Marcel Lapierre stands at the center of the natural wine big bang — the primordial origin of a wave that is still washing over and disrupting every corner of wine and food culture.

Marcel’s revolutionary stance toward winemaking with no chemical inputs is what dominates conversations about his wines. But none of us would be talking about natural wine in the first place unless Lapierre’s Beaujolais wasn’t also head-turning, eye-opening stuff of wine fantasy. His Beaujolais sets the standard for juicy, crushable, gorgeous red wine; it was and continues to be among the most pleasurable wines made anywhere. Few others have been able to adhere to natural wine principles while producing wine that is just so fundamentally beautiful that everybody who has ever tasted it wants it again. Marcel did.

In 2010, Marcel passed away. Like many wine lovers around the world, I wondered what would happen to the domaine. How could anybody continue on with a legacy like Marcel’s hovering over them? Mathieu, Marcel’s son, stepped into the massive shoes left by his father. He quickly filled them. Over the last two decades, he has done something I would have never imagined when I first met him: he has taken his family’s storied wines and made them even better.

Mathieu’s imprint on Domaine Lapierre is a new, lightning-like intensity that adds to the wonder of the wines. They are still gorgeous and crushable. They are still lighthearted and playful. But they are also sublime rabbit holes of complexity, sexy and eye-opening, with loads of crushed red rose, baked cherry, forest floor, that unmistakable, poppy bounce, and a sleek texture that makes them disappear so fast.

We’re very close to the Lapierre family and are lucky to have access to more than our fair share of these beautiful wines. With that said, it’s still never enough.

— Jason Zuliani, Dedalus founder and CEO