Some of the wines at Domaine du Petit Pérou leave the cellar after a few months. Others wait for years. In Villié-Morgon, Laurent and Hugo Thévenet work with both rhythms, making Gamay for early drinking alongside Morgons that spend extended periods in wood and bottle.
The contrast belongs to Beaujolais itself. Beyond the annual arrival of Nouveau lies a landscape of named hillsides, old vines and wines made to develop slowly. Petit Pérou occupies that broader territory, with three Morgon cuvées, a Brouilly, two Chardonnays and a Syrah that takes the family outside the region’s familiar grape.
It is also a domaine shaped by successive generations taking greater control of their wine. The Thévenets moved from selling to merchants to bottling the whole harvest themselves. Today, the vineyard and cellar remain family work, with Laurent and Hugo at the centre of the operation.
The ground beneath Morgon
Morgon takes its name from Villié-Morgon. Its landscape includes granite, weathered rock and the blue stones associated with Côte du Py. The familiar expression roche pourrie, literally rotten rock, refers to decomposed geological material, not to poor agricultural ground.
The cru is not a single uniform slope. Corcelette, Douby, Grand Cras, Aux Chênes and Côte du Py are among its named localities. Changes in rock, soil and exposure run through the appellation, giving growers several different settings in which to work with Gamay.
Côte du Py supplies one of its most recognisable names. The hill’s decomposed schist and blue stones distinguish it from the granite-dominated picture often used to describe Beaujolais as a whole. Its reputation for wines that develop with age helps explain why Morgon has such a firm place in cellars as well as on restaurant lists.
At Petit Pérou, those local distinctions run directly into the wines. Aux Chênes is associated with Les Dryades, while old vines around the foot of Côte du Py and parcels on its southeast-facing slopes lead to separate bottlings.
A wine landscape shaped by rock
The wider Beaujolais landscape runs from the Saône plain in the east through vineyard slopes to higher, wooded country in the west. The western mountains rise above a thousand metres, while valleys interrupt the gentler wine-growing hills. Morgon belongs to one part of a region whose terrain changes considerably over a relatively short journey.
That diversity helped Beaujolais become a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2018. Its geological history extends across hundreds of millions of years, with crystalline basement, metamorphic rocks and later sedimentary formations contributing to the present landscape.
The significance for wine is in the differences beneath the vines. A hillside of weathered granite is not the same growing environment as a site over limestone, nor does material accumulated at the foot of a slope behave exactly like shallow ground higher up.
Between 2009 and 2018, a regional soil-mapping programme carried out by Sigales with the Rhône Chamber of Agriculture identified more than three hundred soil variants. It covered all twelve Beaujolais appellations, bringing greater detail to a region too often described through one grape and one broad soil type.
For Petit Pérou, the practical expression is already present in its cuvées: fruit from Aux Chênes does not disappear into an undifferentiated Morgon, and Côte du Py retains its own bottling. The local names on the wines belong to a landscape far more varied than the term Beaujolais alone can convey.
A family grows into estate bottling
The family’s winemaking history begins with Jean Thévenet selling to négociants. Henri developed bottled sales at the property after the Second World War. Roger subsequently took the wines to Paris wine bars during the difficult trading years of the 1970s.
By 1995, the estate was selling its entire harvest in bottle. That transition brought the Thévenet name closer to the final customer and made the family responsible for the wine beyond the moment it left a bulk tank.
Laurent trained in viticulture and oenology at Avize in Champagne before succeeding his father as manager in 2005. Hugo completed his studies in 2015, combining vineyard and wine training with a technical-commercial qualification in wines and spirits.
The family team extends beyond father and son. Sarah handles administration, Roger remains involved through his experience, and Alexa joined in 2022 after four years preparing orders at another regional estate. Laurent still combines deliveries with vineyard and cellar work.
This remains an agricultural business with its commercial work close at hand. The people responsible for the vines are also involved in getting the finished bottles to customers, continuing a relationship with the Paris trade that began in Roger’s generation.
Gamay before and after the press
Much of Beaujolais’ winemaking character comes from the handling of whole bunches. In traditional semi-carbonic vinification, grapes at the bottom of a vat release juice under the weight above them. Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, while intact berries higher in the vat undergo intracellular fermentation.
Several processes are therefore taking place together. Skins release colour and tannins into the juice; intact fruit develops in a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere. After the vat is drained, the remaining grapes are pressed and fermentation continues.
The length of maceration and the treatment after pressing help separate a wine intended for early release from one destined for longer maturation. At Petit Pérou, the differences are substantial: concrete tanks, old barrels and large demi-muids all have a role.
Les Dryades stays close to Aux Chênes
Morgon Les Dryades grew out of the estate’s longstanding Tradition cuvée. Its name evokes the trees of Aux Chênes, the locality around the domaine.
The Gamay is partly destemmed, with 30% of the stems removed, and undergoes twelve days of semi-carbonic maceration. The wine then spends eight months on fine lees in concrete before bottling and underground storage.
Concrete keeps this cuvée apart from the oak-matured Morgons. Its place in the cellar is not simply an abbreviated version of Côte du Py: the vessel choice is different, as is the time the wine spends there.
The estate recommends serving Les Dryades at 14°C. For restaurants accustomed to serving red wine at a warm room temperature, that is a useful reminder of the cooler service often associated with Gamay.
Old vines and a slower release
For Morgon Vieilles Vignes, the family works with century-old vines at the foot of Côte du Py. The ground combines clay, blue stones and alluvial material.
Fifteen days of carbonic maceration are followed by twelve months in old oak barrels. After a month in concrete, the wine is bottled and remains underground for another year before release.
That final period takes place after the visible work of fermentation and barrel maturation has ended. The bottles continue to occupy the estate’s cellar rather than moving immediately into the trade. Time before release is an integral part of this Morgon, alongside the age of the vines.
Côte du Py takes the longer road
The estate’s Morgon Côte du Py comes from old southeast-facing parcels at around 200 metres. Schist, decomposed granite and blue stones form part of the ground beneath the vines.
The Gamay spends twenty days in carbonic maceration before moving into old 500-litre oak demi-muids for fourteen months. A month in concrete follows, then eighteen months of underground bottle storage.
Les Dryades, Vieilles Vignes and Côte du Py thus emerge from the same appellation by different routes. The first remains in concrete; the others spend a year or more in oak and receive substantial bottle ageing at the estate.
For merchants handling several vintages, release timing is a practical distinction. A recent harvest does not mean every wine from the domaine will arrive together. Some cuvées are still in wood or bottle while others are already being poured.
Brouilly beyond the Morgon vineyards
Further south, Brouilly spreads around the foot of Mont Brouilly across six communes. Pink granite, blue stones and deposits carried down the slopes contribute to its varied geology. The cru has held appellation status since 1938.
The summit, crowned by the chapel of Notre-Dame aux Raisins, overlooks a wine landscape that is more varied than the single hill might suggest. Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly are separate crus; the name of the mountain should not obscure that distinction.
Petit Pérou’s Brouilly Pisse Vieille comes from a south-facing site with granite and decomposed blue stone. It undergoes ten days of carbonic maceration and eight months on fine lees in concrete.
Oak is not the thread connecting this wine to the Morgons. The link is Gamay, handled through a different place and a shorter cellar programme than Côte du Py.
A lighter timetable for Beaujolais
Tu m’tiens au jus replaced the domaine’s Beaujolais rosé with a red Gamay. The family associates its name with the relationship between Laurent and Hugo.
Eight days of carbonic maceration and four months in concrete precede early bottling. The suggested serving temperature is 12–14°C. It is the quicker-moving counterpart to wines that remain underground for much longer.
The coexistence of these styles challenges a narrow reading of Beaujolais as either youthful fruit or serious cru wine. At this domaine, both belong to the same working cellar. A short maturation is a deliberate choice for one cuvée, not a rule imposed on the rest.
Chardonnay has a place here too
White wine is a less visible part of Beaujolais, but Chardonnay has established pockets in the north near the Mâconnais and further south around Liergues, Le Bois-d’Oingt and Bully. Limestone and marl are among the settings in which the grape is grown.
Its handling differs immediately from whole-bunch red vinification. Grapes are pressed on arrival, with the juice then fermented in tank or wood. Lees ageing is common, adding another dimension to the region’s cellar work.
Petit Pérou makes Beaujolais Blanc Terrain Rouge from a southwest-facing parcel with clay-limestone soil above schist-derived material. Five months in old 300-litre barrels are followed by two months in stainless steel.
Bourgogne Blanc Alexa also uses Chardonnay, but the barrel size is 228 litres. Its five-month stay in old oak likewise precedes two months in steel. Both wines include fine-lees work, broadening the domaine beyond its Gamay reds.
Syrah and the pressures of successive harvests
The family planted Syrah in 2012. Bottled as Syrah Désir under the IGP Comtés Rhodaniens designation, it receives 28 days of carbonic maceration, ten months in 500-litre barrels and three months in concrete. Four years of bottle storage follow before sale.
Such long programmes unfold while new harvests continue to arrive. The family’s recent vintage accounts describe hail and heat in 2023, with careful sorting essential, followed by a wet 2024 that demanded intensive vineyard work.
In 2025, heat in spring and summer was followed by rain before picking. These changing conditions leave their mark on the work long before a wine reaches a restaurant. The same cuvée name returns each year, but the fruit and the decisions surrounding it do not repeat mechanically.
Petit Pérou’s identity lies in that combination of continuity and variation: a family rooted in Villié-Morgon, several expressions of Gamay, and wines moving through the cellar at very different speeds. The landscape supplies the distinctions; successive generations have chosen how to carry them into the bottle.
