Wised-Up Beaujolais: Not Just for Turkey Day

12 May Wised-Up Beaujolais: Not Just for Turkey Day

Domaine des Terres Dorées Grille Midi

Grille Midi means literally “twelve o’clock grid” and refers to the best of the best land in Fleurie where the sun at high noon shines directly down and floods the area with the perfect amount of light for the perfect amount of time. All of Jean-Paul’s Fleurie vines are in the Grille Midi climat, but he reserves this name for wines made from his oldest vines.

This wine displays bright fruit (think blackberries and plums) followed by a very long, lingering finish. This wine is drinking beautifully now but will also last for quite some time due to the structure inherent in this vintage. The wine is matured in concrete tanks rather than old oak barrels.

Robert-Denogent Cuvée Jules Chauvet

Bringing the funk for real, this Beaujolais-Villages sees absolutely no sulfur. It’s an honest-to-goodness living wine.  Hand-harvested grapes allow wild yeasts to carry out fermentation after a carbonic maceration, techniques Jules Chauvet–a legendary Beaujolais négociant and natural winemaking pioneer from whose relative this parcel was leased- championed that are now trademarks of fine Beaujolais. Aged in neutral barrels, the wine sees no fining or filtration. Rife with aromas of wild berries backed by bright acidity and a smooth finish, this cuvée is a fitting tribute to Chauvet and will surely put a smile on your face.

Foillard Morgon Côte du Py

The pride of Morgon, the granite and schist slopes of Côte du Py sit at the highest point above the town and create the most fascinating complexity achievable in the cru.  Winemaker Jean Foillard’s wines, nearly unsulfered like the Cuvée Jules Chauvet, have a richness of body and firm structure that sustain the wines’ balance through the little environmental changes that can sometimes upset a less a less balanced natural wine, and the resulting finesse seems effortless.  Morgon wines are the most easily appreciated of the cru Beaujolais reds for lovers of California natural blends, too!