DOMAINE RAPHAEL CHOPIN Beaujolais Villages 'La Savoye' Lantignie

Brouilly is the largest and furthest south of the Beaujolais crus. It has a good south eastern exposure, at the bottom of the Saône Valley at an altitude of 200 to 300 metres. The subsoil consists of granite debris and blue-tinged schist. This also ranked the full 5 stars in my abbreviated-for-iPad rating system! Immediately exuberant, with a diverse array of floral notes, theres also some white pepper and crushed cherry notes. Gamay varietal by Dominique Piron.

The 2017 is a smoky and juicy dark cherry-and-raspberry-noted wine with sappy freshness and a nice, crunchy finish. "The late Marcel Lapierre once said of Beaujolais, Ça se bois sous la douche. (Its a wine you can drink under the shower). While this captures the simple deliciousness of much Beaujolais, it doesnt do justice to the wines being produced by the finest artisans like Pierre-Marie Chermette. Of the wines of Domaine du Vissoux we would be more likely to say, Il est trop bon pour être bu sous la douche! Its too damn good to be drunk in the shower! Beaujolais can be the most joyful, compelling and life-affirming of wines. Yet in the hands of a master it can also be a wonderfully refined, long-lived Burgundy. Domaine du Vissoux is a producer capable of fashioning such wines. This is why their wines can be found in many of Frances finest restaurants and why Vissoux remains the highest-rated Beaujolais producer in the leading French wine guide, Les Meilleurs Vins de France. Owners Pierre-Marie and Martine Chermette were among the first in Beaujolais to use sustainable agricultural practices, shunning the use of any chemicals in the vineyard and encouraging as much life in the soil as possible. They prune hard to keep yields low, harvest by hand when the grapes are fully ripe and regularly carry out green harvests to further reduce the yields and ensure full ripeness for the harvest. The wines are made with minimal intervention: wild yeasts, minimal sulphur additions and no filtering if possible. Ageing is in traditional up-to-the-ceiling, neutral oak casks."

Très Vielle Vigne translates to “ancient vines”- in the case of this wine, we’re talking 80 years old. Sitting on a steep southeast-facing slope with the trademark granitic soils of Beaujolais, these vines deliver on concentration and structure. The aspect is perfect for gentle morning ripening, and the granite lends energy to the wine. This wine is the pride of the Domaine, with deep and dark flavours and unending complexity to discover. Despite the usual thought that Beajoulais can’t age, this wine still has years of delight under the cork- particularly from the 2020 vintage. This is modern Beajoulais at its best.

Dominique Piron is one of the benchmark producers in Beaujolais, producing balanced and thoughtful wines. The wine offers abundant fruit but also strucutre, resulting in a very rewarding Bojo.