A Burgundy Odyssey for Bloomsday Commomoration (June 16): Grégory and Antoine Gouges Weave a Winedark Tapestry of Seven Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Crus in Nine Packs of NSG Vertical Sets for the Paterfamilias- A Portrait in Youth and Age
Let the nihilists and conspiracy nuts have their doomsday; Bloomsday will remain our most personally significant wine-related holiday. Named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist and hero of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece ‘Ulysses’ that follows Bloom’s existential meander through the street, brothels and drinking-holes of turn-of-the-century Dublin on (of course) June 16.
Ensconced within the smoky warmth of Davy Byrne’s pub, Bloom exclaims, “Nice wine it is. Taste it better because I’m not thirsty …. Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that badly …. Glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed. Crushing in the winepress grapes of Burgundy. Sun’s heat it is.”
2025 marks the hundred-and-third anniversary of the release of James Joyce’s masterpiece, and a few venerable souls who purchased a copy on the day it came out are still trying to wade through it. Not everyone agrees on the genius of the work—a florid, stream-of-consciousness ramble through Ireland’s capital city over the course of a single day. Joyce fans celebrate this day to honor the peculiar genius of their favorite author. We prefer to reserve it for a celebration of our favorite Burgundies.
Catching Greatness in the Act: Domaine Henri Gouges Vertical Sets
This year we are focusing on the grand old estate of Henri Gouges and offer a number of vertical sets from some of Nuits-St-Georges’ top vineyards. The beauty and purpose of a vertical—same producer, same varietal, same appellation, different vintage—is to measure the effects of weather on terroir, and to gauge changes not only between production years, but on the evolution of wine in a bottle.
As wine lovers, we are also readers, and vertical sets are often the most intriguing way to understand the story of a winemaker and his/her wares; we can follow the plot gifted us by their skills and by nature’s editing.
An important note to remember when tasting Burgundy vintages is that maturation process rarely follows a typical path of youth/maturity/decline. Much more frequently it follows a sin curve with peaks and valleys. A disappointing Burgundy at the age of five has likely not passed its prime, especially if it is made by a producer with the reputation of Gouges. It should be pushed further back in the cellar—it has a good chance of opening up with a few more quiet years of rest.
These wines are, of course, available individually as well, at the prices noted.
Vintage 2022
Dry heat seems to be the new normal in Burgundy and the vines are adapting. As a result, the wines that emerge from the far end of a scorching season are able to retain delicate tannins along with freshness, fruitiness, finesse and elegance. Of course, it helped that there was a big storm at the end of June where nearly eight inches of rain fell; also, the extreme heat throughout the rest of the summer slowed the physiological ripeness in the vines as the sugar accumulation continued and the acidity was preserved. But in the end, the resilience of the vines is, and always has been, a hallmark of Burgundy.
Vintage 2019
Generally considered an excellent vintage, the 2019 growing season was preceded by a very mild winter than morphed into a chilly spring, with April seeing biting frosts that cut into yields. Flowering was uneven due to a cooler than average June and some bunches suffered from millerandage, which further nibbled away yield. Temperatures then warmed up rapidly, to such an extent that, by July and August, many of the vines were suffering from heat and drought stress.
The grapes that survived were small and richly concentrated, leading to a small, but notably expressive vintage with richly, refined fruit and the best examples likely to cellar well.
Vintage 2014
Burgundian weather during the 2014 growing season had its usual ups and downs with a mild, dry spring leading to an early budburst and flowering. Warm conditions continued through June, and all looked well until a violent hailstorm struck, battering sites in Beaune, Meursault, Volnay and Pommard particularly affected. The vineyards of Côte de Nuits tended to be less affected, but some still suffered losses. Yields were down across the board and July failed to bring better weather as conditions remained cool and wet with few days of real heat. Late July also saw another hailstorm strike. By mid-August, better weather began to prevail, and sunny days started to dry out the vineyards. This pleasant turn of fortune lasted through harvest, and the resulting vintage was smaller than usual, but the quality was high, with both reds and whites tending to be classic in character.
Domaine Henri Gouges
A Century of Stewardship and Strength
in Nuits-Saint-Georges
Considered by many to be Nuits-Saint-Georges’ top domain, the estate has been passed down through many generations and is, to this day, a family affair, with four Gouges at the helm.
Grégory Gouges has been the domain’s winemaker since 2003; Pierre today runs the business end with his cousin Christian, son Grégory, and Grégory’s cousin Antoine. The vineyards cover 36 acres, including seven of the best well-positioned Premier Crus: Les Chaignots, Chênes Carteaux, Les Pruliers, the monopole vineyard of Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges and nearly three acres each of each of the appellation’s most famous vineyards, Les Vaucrains and Les Saint Georges.
Antoine, Grégory, Christian & Pierre Gouges, Domaine Henri Gouges
photo: jean louis bernuy
Domain Henri Gouges is of the appellation, for the appellation and by the appellation; all properties are within Nuits-Saint-Georges. According to Grégory, “Our family had some vines, but mainly for their own consumption. Henri decided to dedicate himself to winemaking full time with the intention creating his own domain. He bought this building, the old police station. and lived here with his wife and children. He built the cellar, the winery and the stable for the horses. The majority of the vines he purchased are on the south side of Nuits-Saint-Georges; the vines in Les Chaignots were an inheritance in the 1970’s from a cousin. He focused on the southern part of the appellation, which he considered as the ‘real’ Nuits-Saint-Georges with wines of substance and power. He created a solid foundation and created the image of the domain. We have tried to keep it. There has been some evolution, but without becoming victims of fashion—just a slow evolution without losing our identity.”
Waxing philosophically, Grégory muses, “You can’t live in the past, but you can learn from history, especially if it is a history that have worked well. For us it is very important to stay on this road. It’s a road of quality wines, terroir wines, respect for nature and respect for the customer. It is something very honest, and we will continue like this.”
Tapestry of Terroir: The Winescape of Nuits-Saint-Georges
Like most things involving wine, ‘terroir’ can be as simple or complicated as you care to make it. At its most basic, terroir is a wine’s pedigree, its ‘sense of origin’, but then again, these basics involve such highbrow abstractions as geomorphology, bacterial genomes and mesa- and microclimates.
Nuits-St-Georges, with its centuries-old history of winemaking, is a grand example.
With the village of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the robust appellation extends to the north as far as the border of Vosne-Romanée, while the southern section lies partly in Nuits-Saint-Georges and partly in Prémeaux. The wines from each section are unique in style and according to experts, with differences defined (in the main) by the lay of the land. The soils in the northern sector are built around the pebbly alluvium that washes down from up-slope, or in the low-lying parts, around silty deposits from the river Meuzin. In the southern sector the alluvia at the base of the slopes originate in the combe of Vallerots where there are deep marly-limestone soils, while at the top of the slope, the soil has nearly all eroded away and the rock is near the surface. In both regions, favored exposures are mostly to the east or southeast.
Producing predominantly red wine, Nuits-Saint-Georges bottles display the muscularity and breeding most sought after in Burgundy—the ability to improve with bottle age. When young, the wine display aromas of cherry, strawberry and blackcurrant, and when matured, leather, truffle, fur and game.
Vineyard Holdings
Bourgogne Régionale
So specific are the cru vineyards of Burgundy that régionale vineyards may exist in the literal shadow of more renowned domains, occasionally separated by hundreds, or even as little as dozens of feet. Régionale wines tend to be culled from vineyards located along the foot of more prestigious wine-growing slopes on limestone soil mixed with some clays and marls, where the earth is stony and quick-draining.
Unlike Bordeaux, where classifications are based on individual châteaux (capable of buying other vineyards and expanding), Burgundian label classifications are more geographically focused. A single vineyard, therefore, may have multiple owners, each with a small piece of the action.
The ‘Bourgogne’ label first appeared in 1937, and in 2017, a further classification permitted wines from vineyards located within the Côte d’Or to be labeled as ‘Bourgogne Côte d’Or’; it’s a great tool for a consumer looking to explore the wide diversity of vineyard among the Hills of Gold while maintaining a terroir-focused, climat approach to Burgundy.
Bourgogne Two-Bottle Set $106
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)
2022 Bourgogne-level wines are generally unfussy and non-pretentious, but in the hands of the Gouges estate, they display most of the depth of Village wines and beyond. The fruit profile here is remarkable rich with smooth, integrated tannins and a touch of grassiness in the acidity.
2019 From the bottom of hillside in the lieu-dit ‘Des Petits Chaliots’, the wine displays pronounced intensity, with a nose showcasing strawberry, red rose, cured meat, gravel, underbrush and white pepper, finishing with crushed-rock minerality. Having begun its developmental journey, it may not have the longevity of Cru wines, and will probably reach its peak sooner.
Nuits-Saint-Georges Village
Village—the quality level below Premier Cru—is the most affordable path to understanding the underlying ‘sense of place’ that is the Holy Grail of Burgundian wine ideology. Many of the qualities that are assigned to various Crus are recognizable this level, if in a slightly dilute form—Savigny’s meatiness, Volnay’s elegance, Vosne-Romanée’s spice and Meursault’s buttery nuttiness. Legal restrictions help to underscore this: Villages wines have a slightly higher yield allowances per hectare, but the grape varieties are restricted. Not only that, but even Grand Cru vineyard owners can declassify grapes when they see fit, and many of these end up in Village-level wines.
Village Three-Bottle Set $298
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)
2019 Maison Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($94)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)
2022 Blackberry and wild strawberry are laced with firm natural tannins that 20% new oak neatly sews up. Still possessing the austerity of youth, the rich mid-palate darkens and softens in the glass and leads to a gently sauvage—or rustic—finale.
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges makes this outstanding Nuits-Saint-Georges by blending estate fruit with neighboring organic vineyards and bottles it under ‘Maison’ Henri Gouges. A nose of wild blackberry drives the wine, which shows a touch of herb and musk that should become more pronounced with a bit more age.
2014 All the rough edges have been shaved off a solid effort that is approaching its tenth birthday, about the limit for improvement in a Village wine. The perfume of wood and fruit has morphed into a tertiary blend of earth and leather; the color is bricking-out and growing tawny. Look for traces of 2022’s brilliant cherry, but grown concentrated and slightly dried; at this stage, a Village wine is generally approaching its fullest glory.
Zone Vosnoise (The Northern End)
Zone Vosnoise is a local term that refers to the northern portion of Nuits-Saint-Georges just below the Les Damodes vineyard; it derives its name from the fact that it borders Vosne-Romanée’s Aux Malconsorts Premier Cru vineyard. The soil in this region is characterized by thin soil, cobbled silts, clay and scree; a combination that favors rich, full Pinot Noirs.
The Zone is prized for its Premier Crus, including the fabled climats of Aux Boudots and Aux Chaignots.
Premier Cru Les Chaignots
Unlike Bordeaux, where Premier Cru is the top of the heap, Premier Cru plays second fiddle in Burgundy, with Grand Cru as the ultimate expression of quality. That is hardly to discount the quality inherent in Premier Cru wines, which represents about 18 percent of Burgundy’s annual output. In total, Burgundy hosts 640 Premier Cru vineyards (also referred to as climats) in the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise.
Les Chaignots is a fifteen acre climat located mid-slope in the northern part of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The chalky soils are ideal for Pinot Noir; made up of gravel and small rocks with a low proportion of clay. There is good drainage here, ensuring that vines are not waterlogged. Rather, they grow deep root systems to access water and nutrients further in the ground. The vineyard’s easterly exposure works with the mid-slope position to ensure plenty of sunshine throughout the growing season. The elevation offers diurnal temperature variation to slow ripening and helping the grapes retain their acidity.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $288
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)
2022 Recovering from the frost damage of 2021, and untouched by June’s hail, Gouges 2022 shows balanced ripeness fine-grained tannins and a classic dark fruit profile. The vines that produced these grapes are more than thirty years old, and this is seen by the depth and concentration of the juice. The nose remains restrained and will undoubtedly open up profoundly in years to come.
2019 Ebullient with fragrance, especially fragrant bouquet of brambly red berry fruit with a dusting of dark chocolate, the wine is broadening and discovering a voice that will continue to grow louder with the passing of time.
Zone de Saint-Georges (Central)
With the town of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the Zone Vosnoise lies above and Zone de Saint-Georges below. The southern vineyards, including their top climats, tend to produce rustic, rugged wines that are hard in their youth and earthy in their twilight years, wines that have been described in existential terms: “This is what I always imagined a mature Burgundy to be.”
Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux
First among equals of the smallest of Zone de Saint-Georges Premier Crus, Chênes Carteaux is a little more than six acres whose highest vines sit at just below one thousand feet in elevation. 20% slopes are relatively brutal for the region. As such, these wines tend to be lighter and brighter than most Nuits-St-Georges, displaying a classic minerality in its goût de terroir—literally, ‘the taste of the soil.’
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $252
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)
2022 A detailed and mineral-driven wine with a strong herbal presence, the sense of energy is palpable. Medium-bodied and slightly austere, the filagree tannins work alongside sharp, higher-altitude acidity that fan out in a long finish.
2014 Nearly a decade after harvest, this wine—having been well-made in a year with some difficulties elsewhere but wonderful at Chez Gouges—retains its ‘Pinoté’ of crisp cherry and stoney persistence. The bouquet is filled with sous bois and truffle and the wine expresses and impressively long finish.
Premier Cru Les Pruliers
Les Pruliers lies near the border of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux-Prissey in the southern part of the appellation. The name is a reference to the wild plum trees that grew on the plot before it was planted to vines. Pruliers faces due east, catching the morning sun and is on a moderate slope silty scree and gravel over limestone; the southern end has noticeably finer gravel than the north. The wines of Pruliers are fruit-heavy, with flavors pitched toward the black. While not heavy-handed in the slightest, these wines emphasize robustness over sleekness.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $315
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($198)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($117)
2022 Cropped at 22 hl/ha (about half what is average for the AOP), drawn from vines where 80% are over 75 years old then matured in 25% new oak, the wine shows dense red fruit, taut and relatively fine middleweight flavors exuding a classic bead of minerality.
2014 From a birthplace of privilege—Gouges plot in Le Pruliers—the wine was created with wonderful perfume, fine length and body, and the structure for long aging. Thanks to minimalist concrete tank fermentations and moderate use of new oak, this wine was among the stars of the vintage and continues to evolve along a wonderful path.
Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges
Clos des Porrets is a monopole vineyard, meaning that it entirely owned by one family—in this case, the Gouges. Not only that but it is the anecdotal home of Pinot Gouges, a white-skinned mutation of Pinot Noir that Henri Gouges discovered. Although not walled in the traditional sense of a Clos, the climat covers about nine acres of the larger Les Porrets site. The Clos sits mid-slope where its southeast exposure affords it full sunlight in the growing season. The wines are, as a result, deep, dark, earthy and enormous in stature, but refined nonetheless.
Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $396
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($126)
2022 Dark and brooding with tremendous potential. On opening, and allowing for breathing time, the wine displays rose petal, aloe and brambly black raspberry on the nose with a lot of nuance on the palate that is chomping at the bit to be released.
2019 Black cherry, earthy tree bark and dried herbs on the nose with black licorice appearing on the mid-palate. A wine that should easily stand the test of time.
2014 Still several years from peak, the wine still oozes with fruit acids—cherries, cranberries and currant especially and wrapped in a backbone of graphite and stone.
Premier Cru Les Vaucrains
Les Vaucrains is considered one of the top Premier Cru sites in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Perched near the top of the hill on the hill above the Les Saint-Georges Premier Cru site, which is perhaps (in an appellation without Grand Crus) the best. The 15 acre Vaucrains vineyard is on the upper slope of the Côte d’Or, just below the line where vineyard becomes forest. The soils here are the calcareous and rocky as the process of erosion has sent much of the nutrient-rich silts down the hill. The lack of water in this free-draining soil makes for concentrated berries and a small amount of clay in the soil contributes weight to the finished wine. In fact, the evineyard is named Vaucrains after a French term for ‘infertile.’
Wines from this climat offer the best of Nuits-St-Georges power and nuance, with dark cherry, velvet tannins, and elusive notes of milk chocolate.
Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $684
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($252)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($234)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($198)
2022 Stone dust shows on the nose along with the purity and precision of dark fruit with just a hint of smokiness. With 50-year-old vines on average, harvested at 25 hl/ha and 30% new oak, the wine has the structure for the long haul.
2019 With the influence of oak remaining characteristically discreet, the nose is filled with fresh aromas of cassis and plum liqueur with rustic earthy wisps. Tannins are suave but broad-shouldered flavors that persist through an impressive finish.
2014 This is a voluminous wine built for aging; the subtle application of wood allows the firm natural tannins to integrate with the cassis and blackberry notes as tertiary flavors of forest floor, bracken and wild truffles emerge.
Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges
Nuits-St-Georges contains no Grand Cru climats, and in their absence, of the 41 Premier Crus, Les Saint-Georges may be considered worthy of the upgrade. In fact, there is a movement afoot urging the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine to authorize the promotion.
Located halfway between Premeaux-Prissey and the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges, it is a mosaic of limestone soils containing enough clay to strike an ideal balance between drainage and water retention; the wines are a powerful testimony to the terroir, offering concentrated red fruit, soft tannins and notable depth in the finish.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $969
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($720)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($249)
2022 Black and red cherry with some plum and hints of roasted meat; textures are layered and the spice notes are already evident, showing hints of how exceptional it intends to become .
2014 The emerging spice box includes clove, cinnamon and thyme alongside dark chocolate, and oak vanilla. A wine so structured and massive that it may only be a third of the way through its lifetime—drink or hold; it should improve for another decade.
White Nuits-Saint-Georges
A category so small that it amounts to a rounding error; only 3% of Nuits-St-Georges’ output is white. But, oh, that white! Oozing with opulence, white NSG shows Champagne-like brioche above its rich and memorable golden hue. Only about twenty-five acres in Nuits-St-Georges is set aside for white wine varietals, mainly (but not exclusively) Chardonnay.
White NSG Two-Bottle Set $251
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru La Perrière Blanc ($198)
100% Pinot Gouges from the La Perrière climat, filled—as the name suggests—with stones and chalk. Low production from, as its name implies, an old stone quarry. This unique cru is as rare as it is unusual, coming from a single acre of 80-year-old vines showing a broad, mineral-laden palate with floral and white peach notes.
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Pinot Blanc ($53)
Don’t let the label fool you; this is not Pinot Blanc, but Pinot Gouges, a Pinot Noir mutation that Henri Gouges discovered in a stone quarry called La Perrière, now a vineyard. The incorrect, but user-friendly moniker ‘Pinot Blanc’ leads you to one of the most idiosyncratic whites in Burgundy. On the nose, it shows classic lemon and apple followed by cold stone and faint hints of buttery toast. On the tongue, sweet almond and fresh corn appear.
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Posted on 2025.06.14 in Nuits-Saint-Georges, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
Côte des Bar Sets the Course: Jean-Sébastien Fleury, Ecological Pioneer, Is in Pursuit of “Understanding and Revealing Terroir’s Character” in Champagne. NEW RELEASES
Although it sounds a bit contradictory, ‘doing what comes naturally’ is often an exacting science and a dedicated quest, and nowhere in Champagne is this more evident than in the fields and cellars of Domaine Fleury, the Côte des Bar foremost champion of ‘The Art of Nature.’
Founded in 1895 in the heart of the Côte des Bar and driven by the terroir of the clay-limestone hillsides formed by the first tributaries of the Seine, Fleury has a storied history in the region, managing to weather both the phylloxera crisis and the market crash of 1929. But according to Jean-Pierre Fleury, it was biodynamics over all else that gave new meaning to Champagne production: “To be respectful of the natural and living heritage of this terroir, where custodians of the land forever learn, in all humility, to perceive the balance and to unearth its mysteries.”
Gone entirely biodynamic by 1992—a time when the concept was foreign to nearly every winemaker in France—Jean-Pierre has passed the spirit of purity and innovation to his children: Morgane Fleury, an actress and sommelier, who has developed a new concept of an ecological wine and champagne bar in central Paris; Jean-Sébastien, also at the heart of innovation at the domain, who is experimenting with grafting techniques in the vines as well as reintroducing horses to work on certain plots; Benoît, who is currently working with massale selection and agro-forestry as new ways of cultivating the vines in symbiosis with an adapting environment.
Biodynamic practices remain the focus of virtually every decision made at Fleury: According to Jean-Pierre Fleury, who passed away in 2023, “This idea of nature’s unity and the interdependence between the earth’s life forces has become central to everything we do. It simultaneously encompasses humility by questioning certain convictions or conventions, observation skills and a new way to care for plants and soils, the latter being the source of a plant’s balance. Biodynamic agriculture involves coordinating the element’s relation, exchange, affinity and also repulsion with cosmic rhythms.”
A New Dawn in the South: A Transformation in the Côte des Bar
There is a certain ignominy in being Aube. Ninety miles south of Épernay, there have been times when its very inclusion in the Champagne appellation has been cast into doubt: In 1908, for example, Champagne Viticole was defined as 37,000 acres in the Marne and the Aisne, with the Aube département excluded. The effervescent French do not take such face-slaps lightly, and after a series of riots, a new legal delimitation of Champagne was drawn in 1927, delineating its modern boundaries—85,000 acres that this time included the Aube and its most heralded subzone, the Côte des Bar.
Even so, the échelles des crus ranking offered none of Aube’s villages the prestige of Grand Cru or Premier Cru ranking. This didn’t help in removing the stigma of being Champagne’s Pluto, and it has only been fairly recently that progressive—even iconoclastic winemakers— have thrust the region into the spotlight. Today, the Côte des Bar makes up 23% of Champagne’s output, and the past 20 years have seen its vineyard surface grow by more than three thousand acres.
Champagne Fleury
“Let Nature and Its Rhythms Express Themselves.”
If any estate is anchored to the Côte des Bar it is Champagne Fleury, whose Courteron vineyards span 38 acres on a clay-limestone hillside along a tributary of the Seine. But, as the first Champagne house to convert to biodynamics (1989), Jean-Pierre Fleury proved that a producer can have roots in the earth while raising the mainsail to innovation.
Today, his son Jean-Sébastien Fleury has taken the winemaking rudder, and is tacking toward the future with respect for the unique situation of the Côte des Bar, which is closer to Chablis than to Reims. “The key is soil health,” he says. “We must keep the earth healthy. The structure of the soil gives back the essence of the terroir.”
In this endeavor, he is joined by his younger brother Benoît, who came on board in 2010 to manage the vineyards, intent not only on maintaining biodynamics, but also researching soil biology, biodiversity and experimenting with agro-forestry. A third sibling, Morgane, initially studied to be an actress and a sommelier in Suze-la-Rousse, runs ‘My Cave Fleury’ in Les Halles (made famous by Émile Zola’s famous novel of the same name) where she specializes in biodynamic wines.
The estate encompasses ten plots planted primarily to Pinot Noir, the oldest planted in 1970, and new cuttings are established every year to maintain the vitality that younger vines bring to Champagne. The ultimate goal, according to Jean-Sébastien is a wish “to let the nature and its rhythms express themselves.”
Embrace the Balance, Share Nature’s Secrets
The Japanese have long espoused a mystical connection between the earth and sky; a spectacle of nature and the subtle balance that prevails between tradition and modernity. That is a philosophy that winemaker Jean-Sébastien Fleury grew up with. His father, Jean-Pierre, who originally wanted to be an astronomer, embraced the concept that every human on earth has a small but essential role in maintaining the harmony of the universe, and fell in love with cultures founded on principles of equity, between people and with the land, and decided early to raise his family in physical and spiritual health.
Champagne is especially suited to this thought process; at its core, it is an attempt to find a nearly magical equilibrium between nature and man’s ability to enhance it. An understanding of the microcosm and the macrocosm is essential to a biodynamic vision, and as an homage to the interdependence of earth and sky, Fleury vineyard practices seemed—in the last century—as almost druidic, although they are now being embraced throughout France.
Understanding and Revealing Terroir’s Character
Reims lies at Latitude 49°5, and Épernay at 49°; in the northern hemisphere, it is generally considered difficult to obtain quality grapes at the 50th parallel and above. The ninety mile cushion enjoyed by Côte des Bar has a pronounced effect on the grower’s ability to ripen Pinot Noir; as a result, 86% of the vineyards are planted to this varietal. Despite this, the soils of the Côte des Bar is closer to that of Chablis—Kimmeridgian marl topped by Portlandian limestone, whereas the vines near Épernay and Reims tend to be planted in Cretaceous chalk. Chablis, of course, is ground zero for Chardonnay, and it is humidity coming from the Atlantic in the west as well as continental influences with higher temperatures that make the Côte des Bar Pinot Noir country through and through. That said, local climate conditions, slope and orientation are extremely varied throughout region, and produces many individual micro-climates, so each vigneron needs to be fully attentive to his own terroir in order to make the most of it. Côte des Bar features a host of small producers whose output varies almost as much as the local landscape.
The Biodynamic Principles: In Harmony with Earth’s Living Forces
The Fleury family looks at the estate as a living organism and pampers it as one might a beloved family pet. “We have been cultivating our land in line with its habitat for more than thirty years, acknowledging nature’s rhythms and the influence of terrestrial and cosmic forces. At first, this agricultural principle may seem demanding and esoteric, but it is truly a virtuous circle. We envision wine as a support of nature’s creation that undeniably enhances the product we bottle. All wines are labeled ‘Organic Agriculture TM’ and ‘Biodynamic.’”
Fleury delves deeper: “A vineyard is a monoculture, so our work is directed toward increasing biodiversity. Our viticultural work is focused on both the soil and the plant. Cultivation is done by hand in addition to the application of biodynamic preparations. Vine work is synchronized with planetary and lunar cycles; this is based on the effects these heavenly bodies have on root, leaf, flower and fruit development. For example, vine suckering, de-leafing and de-budding is done on ‘leaf day’ in the lunar calendar. The grafts and harvest is done in accordance with the lunar spring, when the moon is rising, a time that favors heavy sap flow. The lunar fall, when the moon is descending, is the best time for pruning.”
Vinification at the Winery: Crafting the Essence of the Earth
“Our slow aging process is a symbolic return to the earth,” says Jean-Sébastien Fleury, referencing the biodynamic methods that result in wines with an improved balance between sweetness and acidity compared to other wines. “In our Domain, these characteristics allow us to leave the bottles to age in our cellar for a longer time of 3 to 5 years for the Blanc de Noirs, Fleur de l’Europe and Rosé, and 6 to 10 years for the Millésimes. This slow aging process that is an essential step before revealing the wine during the tasting. Aging before beginning a new life symbolizes another cycle of nature and of the cosmos.”
Champagne’s Roots: Three Foundational Grapes and Four Heirloom Varieties
The vast majority of Champagne is made from one or more of the Big Three, chosen in late 19th century as grape varieties that offer the best balance of sugar and acidity to complement the effervescence. First, Pinot Noir, which dominates the holdings in the Côte des Bar, where it is sometimes called Précoce due to its ability to ripen early. When allowed to thrive in cool, chalky soil, Pinot Noir endows Champagne with body, punch and structure. Chardonnay is also an early ripening variety, particularly well-suited to terroirs which lie on an outcrop of chalk, and yields delicately fragrant wines with floral, citrus and mineral notes and produces wines that age well. The trio is rounded out by Meunier, a hardy grape that is compatible with soils containing more clay, such as in the Marne Valley, where it is frequently considered an insurance grape against poor vintages since it buds later and is more accepting of cooler mesoclimates.
In terms of climate and attitude, no place in Champagne is more hospitable to heirloom grapes than the Côte des Bar; overall, more than 250 acres of vineyard is dedicated to Pinot Blanc (locally called Blanc Vrai), Pinot Gris (Fromenteau), Arbane and Petit Meslier.
Chardonnay – ’White Rainbow’
Since virtually all Champagne not designated ‘rosé’ appear pale and straw-colored in the glass, it is sometimes assumed that white wine grapes are predominant in the region. In fact, Chardonnay is the least widely planted of the Big Three, and finds its most reliable stronghold in the north where the Côte des Blanc provides a home-base on an extension of the same chalk outcrop that runs through Chablis.
Despite being less represented in the southern part of Champagne, there still pockets of resistance where Chablisienne terroir prevails, especially those anchored off the slopes of Champraux.
Champagne Fleury ‘Cépages Blancs’, 2012 Côte-des-Bar Extra-Brut ($89)
100% Chardonnay vinified 50% in oak; bottled 07/2012, disgorged 12/2022; dosage, 2 gram/liter.
The old-vine vineyards blended to make this wine are planted in Kimmeridgian limestone in the lieux-dits of Champraux and Valprune; the wine displays superb dried fruits aromas with licorice and praline, the wine is redolent of almonds, peach and white flowers.
*click photo for more info
Pinot Gris – ‘Return Of The Eclipse’
300 years ago, the early-maturing Pinot Gris (then called ‘Fromenteau’) made up 50% of the vineyards in Champagne and even today, the pink-skinned Pinot Noir mutation accounts for about 14% of the vineyard plantings. In Champagne, it can often be identified by the notes of honey and almond it lends to a cuvée.
Champagne Fleury ‘Variation’, 2015 Côte-des-Bar Brut-Nature ($111)
100% Pinot Gris vinified in thermo-regulated vats. Bottled 10/2016; Disgorged 05/2021; dosage, 0 gram/liter.
Planted in 2010, harvested in 2015, this wine is made without sulfites and after five years aging, receives zero dosage. It is the second release of this unique biodynamic Pinot Gris; the mouth is rich and alive with a bright mousse, shows apple notes, bright stone fruit, soft spice and salinity.
*click photo for more info
Pinot Blanc – ‘Memory Of A Star’
Originating in Alsace, Pinot Blanc can be a problem child easily corrupted by disease and mutation, the result of its large berries and unstable relationship with parent Pinot Noir. Yet its value remains in its low sugar/acid ratio and it’s floral, green apple flavor profile.
Champagne Fleury ‘Notes Blanches’, 2016 Côte-des-Bar Brut-Nature ($89)
100% Pinot Blanc with 50% oak élevage. Bottled,10/2017; disgorged,12/2022; dosage, 0 gram/liter.
Emile Fleury, who founded the domain, was a champion of Pinot Blanc—a well-known varietal in Alsace and a hidden gem in Champagne. Morgane Fleury’s vision of creating a monovarietal cuvée using 100% Pinot Blanc from lieux-dits Charme de Fin and Valverot is a rare and expressive experience.
Made from 25-year-old vines, ‘Notes Blanches’ is from the 2015 vintage; it shows creamy lemon and toasted bread on the nose. The palate is filled with tension and elegance, with a fine mousse and mineral finish.
*click photo for more info
Pinot Noir’s Southern Stronghold: Côte des Bar Inspired by Burgundy
So obsessed was the Aube on becoming part of Champagne that they fought back; 40,000 French soldiers were required to quell the violence. Still, like a child who denies his roots, the flavors of Burgundy can be tasted in most aspect of the region—traditions, architecture, cuisine and winemaking.
Most growers in Aube’s vineyard acres trained in Burgundy, and the luxurious Champagnes the region is capable of carry both the precision and minerality of Kimmeridgian limestone—often so close to the surface that no soil is evident and the vines appear to be planted in lunar bedrock—which is the identical foundation for the Grand and Premier Crus of Chablis. Puligny-Montrachet barrels are often used in cellars and biodynamics—much more prevalent in Burgundy than in Champagne—are becoming increasing indispensable to young winemakers in the Côte des Bar. It is, in part, this tension—the tug of war between Champagne and Burgundy—that creates the marvelous electricity of Côte des Bar wines.
‘Planet Pinot Noir’
Champagne Fleury ‘Blanc de Noirs’, Côte-des-Bar Brut ($56)
100% Pinot Noir with 62% harvested in 2018, perpetual reserve for the balance. Bottled 10/2019; disgorged 01/2023; dosage, 4.7 gram/liter.
Created in 1955 by Robert Fleury, this traditional cuvée was re-labeled ‘Blanc de Noirs’ in 2010. Delicate aromas of white peach and iris appear on the nose, while the body shows black cherry and a hint of tart cranberry behind an elegant, zesty and bright bead.
*click photo for more info
‘Notes Of Twilight’
Champagne Fleury ‘Boléro’, 2008 Côte-des-Bar Extra-Brut ($130)
100% Pinot Noir with 30% élevage in oak. Bottled 12/2009; disgorged 12/2022; dosage 0 gram/liter.
Formerly called ‘Millésimé’ (when it contained a small amount of Chardonnay), the cuvée became pure Pinot Noir in 2004. Aged nine years on lees, it is the brainchild of Benoît Fleury, and drawn from four plots—Charme de Fin, Champreaux, Meam Bauché and Montégné. It exhibits complex scents of toasted almond, apricot and freshly-baked bread followed by a lengthy, mineral-driven finish. shows interwoven aromas of dried fruits, toasted almonds, apricots and freshly-baked bread followed by juicy stone fruits wrapped in crystalline effervescence.
*click photo for more info
‘When Mars Meets Venus’
Champagne Fleury ‘Rosé de Saignée’, Côte-des-Bar Brut ($63)
100% Pinot Noir vinified in thermo-regulated vats. From the 2018 harvest; bottled 07/2019; disgorged 10/2022; dosage 3.4 gram/liter.
The grapes see a short period of maceration before pressing—the production method called saignée. It produces a light, lyrical sparkling wine whose dosage has been gradually reduced over the years; the wine is redolent of strawberry compote and vanilla, with a rich palate that maintains both elegance and delicacy.
*click photo for more info
Coteaux-Champenois: Still Champagne
Coteaux-Champenois is a unique AOP dedicated entirely to non-effervescent Champagne. It may be red, white or rosé, although the lion’s share is red—Bouzy rouge being the most celebrated. With a warming climate ripening grapes more consistently, Coteaux-Champenois is becoming positively trendy and producers across the 319 communes entitled to make wines under the Coteaux Champenois appellation are becoming better known.
Like their fizzy sisters, still wines from the region tend to be dry and light-bodied with naturally high acidity. The reds are better in warmer vintages, which is why the predominant red variety, Pinot Noir, is currently basking in the newfound heat waves of northern France. The reason that 90% of the Coteaux Champenois output is red is not necessarily because the terroir has traditionally favored Pinot Noir, but because locally grown Chardonnay has commanded a higher price when sold to Champagne houses.
Domaine Fleury, Coteaux-Champenois Rosé ‘Côte-des-Bar’ ($56)
Comprised of vintages 2017, 2018 and 2019 hand-harvested 35 to 40 years old Pinot Noir vines, fermented spontaneously with low-intervention, bottled unfined and unfiltered. The wine offers a nose of Maraschino cherry, strawberry and lemon zest while the fruit-driven palate had notes of cherry and raspberry behind bright acidity.
*click photo for more info
Pinot Noir Leads: Blending Toward ‘Subtle Alchemy’
Champagne should illustrate the word ‘synergy’ above all, where the sum of the total is greater than the individual parts. The ideal blend should be the aggregation of positive components; every thread should add to the tapestry’s whole. The blend should always drive toward harmony; Chardonnay is often up front, while Pinot Noir supplies the middle and finish. Other allowable varietals should only appear if they contribute to the primary blend.
This is not a universal outcome, of course, and according to Jean-Marc Lallier of Champagne Deutz, “Some winemakers do not blend; they mix.”
When cellar masters do it right, it is a painstaking undertaking; every tank, barrel and vat is tasted countless times to assess which batch would enhance which. This is the true art of Champagne making—the intimate familiarity with each component in order to align them perfectly.
View Champagne Fleury cuvée blends over the years here.
‘Where The Sun Meets The Moon’
Champagne Fleury ‘Fleur de l’Europe’, Côte-des-Bar Brut-Nature ($61)
85% Pinot Noir, 15% Chardonnay, 54% from the 2017 harvest; 40% received élevage in oak. Bottled 07/2018; disgorged 01/2023; dosage 0 gram/liter.
The first biodynamic cuvée in Champagne, the name references the generation that witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and results from a special pressing of the grapes that reserves the optimum juice. The wine displays silken notes of green apple and peach with warm brioche on the nose and persistent pinpoint bubbles throughout the palate.
*click photo for more info
‘Cosmic Symphony’
Champagne Fleury, 2010 Côte-des-Bar Millésime Brut ($92)
80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay with 60% in bottle with corks during second fermentation. Bottled 12/2013; disgorged 09/2022; dosage 3 gram/liter.
The grapes come from 20-year-old vines, the first declared vintage for Fleury since 2004. The old vines give intensity and toasty character to the palate, which is full of honey-nut spiciness with hints of smoke behind citrus/apple flavors.
*click photo for more info
‘Little Music For Time And Space’
Champagne Fleury ‘Sonate’, 2013 Côte-des-Bar Extra-Brut ($89)
92% Pinot Noir, 8% Pinot Blanc bottled 07/2014, disgorged 10/2022 and dosed at 0 gram/liter.
Sonate is the fourth edition of sulfite-free wine. From plots in Champraux, Valprune and Charme de Fin, the vines average 35 years of age. The wine is loaded with aromatic richness, opening with aromas of acacia, daffodil and citrus peel behind ripe peach and a characteristic note of quince jelly.
*click photo for more info
Champagne Fleury ‘4 Cépages’, 2014 Côte-des-Bar Brut-Nature ($107)
58% Pinot Noir, 25% Chard, 12% Pinot Blanc, 5% Pinot Gris (the four ‘cépages’, or grapes), harvested in 2014, bottled 07/2015 and disgorged 01/2022 with 0 gram/liter dosage.
The wine has a notably complex nose of toasted nuts, fresh pastry and apricot marmalade with a sensationally rich palate dominated by citrus, honeycomb, saffron, apricot and candied cashews.
*click photo for more info
Notebook …
Champagne’s Time-Stamped Wines: Vintage vs. Single Harvest
In France, under Appellation d’Origine Portégée (AOP) rules, vintage Champagnes must be aged for three years—more than twice the required aging time for NV Champagne. The additional years on the yeast is said to add complexity and texture to the finished wine, and the price commanded by Vintage Champagne may in part be accounted for by the cellar space the wine takes up while aging.
On the other hand, a Champagne maker might prefer to release wine from a single vintage without the aging requirement; the freshness inherent in non-vintage Champagnes is one of its effervescent highlights. In this case, the wine label may announce the year, but the Champagne itself is referred to as ‘Single Harvest’ rather than ‘Vintage’.
A New Reality: 2009 Marks Champagne’s Climate Turning Point
Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon of Champagne Louis Roederer has been tracking climate change in Champagne since the year 2000. He reports, “Our archives covering harvests over the past 60 years show that since 1995 Champagne has returned to maturity levels which are, on average, in excess of 10 natural degrees of alcohol, with acidity levels around 7 to 8 gram/liter. These levels are close to those traditionally seen for great vintages including 1945, 1947 and 1959, but today’s yields are sometimes three to four times higher.”
Harvest dates in the vineyards of Champagne are among the marks used to measure climate change in general. Since 1989 (the end of a cool temperature cycle) harvest dates have crawled gradually backwards and the 2007 harvest started on August 20. By comparison, in 1945, the harvest commenced on September 8 and the 1947 harvest started on September 2, whilst harvests in the late 1980s were in early October. Harvest dates have grown earlier in each of recent years as means of controlling grape characteristics. Winemakers have been relying on newer techniques to obtain fresher wines as the raw material becomes riper. They are careful to manage malolactic fermentation, sometimes doing only partial MLF or halting it altogether.
Vintage 2009 represents the paradigm shift sweeping the region; in ways, a return to the golden years. It began with a cold winter, but a mild spring, and although early summer saw variable weather, August and September brought ample sunshine and warmth contributing to fine grape health. Harvest was pushed back until September 8, and the grapes, in general, displayed high sugar content and soft acidity. Potential alcohol crept up to 10.3% while acidity remained at 7.5 gram/liter at a pH of 3.08.
2009 produced a voluminous crop (12,280 kilogram/hectare) and the wines are generous that showed impressively even as vin clair. It is an apt example of a vintage of the current era, when retaining freshness is more of a challenge than attaining ripeness.
Vintage Roll
2018
An outstanding vintage for Champagne, producing both quality and quantity. A few isolated hailstorms led to some crop loss, notably in the Côte des Bar, but fortunately, early summer brought hot, sunny and dry days. Occasional showers were welcome relief to parched vines and kept hydric stress at bay, allowing for optimal ripening at a gradual pace in ideal conditions that resulted in an early harvest.
2017
2017 was a vintage that managed (in some areas) to seize defeat from the jaws of victory. A promising start was compromised by August rains which prompted an outbreak of botrytis. This meant the harvest had to be carried out fast and for some producers, it was the shortest on record. Chardonnay tended to be uniformly good and there was also some extremely good Pinot Noir. It was Pinot Meunier that tended to suffer the most, with many grapes overripe.
2016
2016 had a tough April, suffering yield-decimating frosts and in some cases wiping out entire crops. Rain fell throughout May and June, and dry weather did not appear until July, with August reaching blistering highs that caused some grapes to suffer from burns. In all, the harvest was down by one-third, but smaller, more flexible producers ultimately fared well.
2015
A wet winter and mild spring gave way to an exceptionally dry summer from mid-May onwards, and hot weather prevailed until mid-August, when heavy rains fell. Rains gave way to fine, cool, yet sunny weather for the first two weeks of harvest, which began on August 29th.
2013
2013 saw a cool spring followed by a cool summer, with delayed flowering and an onset of millerandage and coulure due to the cool temperatures, cutting yields. However, the reduced crops tended to ripen more easily during what would transpire to be a long growing season. Chardonnay was the strongest performer with some great examples coming from the Côtes des Blancs as well as from the Marne Valley. However, Pinot Noir from Aÿ was also very good.
2012
Like 2008, 2012 was a difficult growing season, with severe frosts in the winter. March brought warmth but early bud break made the vines vulnerable. Overall, the early growing season was wet, with mildew a serious issue, however, conditions improved dramatically in the summer months. An August heatwave resulted in a rapid accumulation of sugar, but the nights remained cool, which preserved acidity. Although yields were low due to the early frost, later hail and disease pressures, the 2012 harvest was exemplary in its maturity, acidity and grape health.
2011
Following a warm, early spring and a cool, damp summer season, 2011 was one of the earliest Champagne harvests in history. Patience and fierce selection at harvest time turned out to be the winning recipe.
2010
Dry conditions hindered grape development early in the season, and after a hot summer, torrential rain in mid-August caused widespread disease pressure. The ripeness of the grapes was good and the acidity remained high despite the warm season, but as a combined consequence of the challenges of the growing season, the global financial crisis and the cellars bursting with fine 2008 and 2009 vintage bottles, few houses declared 2010 a vintage. The ones who did, did so so for a reason.
2008
Initially a difficult, damp year with widespread mildew, expectations for 2008 were low. However, drier conditions in August and a fine, warm September with cool nighttime temperatures proved to be the saving grace. Harvest began on September 15th and it quickly became known as an outstanding year, due to the finesse brought about by the fine, saline freshness and purity of fruit. A dream-come true vintage in many aspects, 2008.
Mapping Champagne: The Seven Distinct Subregions
To be Champagne is to be an aristocrat. Your origins may be humble and your feet may be in the dirt; your hands are scarred from pruning and your back aches from moving barrels. But your head is always in the stars.
As such, the struggle to preserve its identity has been at the heart of Champagne’s self-confidence. Although the Champagne controlled designation of origin (AOC) wasn’t recognized until 1936, defense of the designation by its producers goes back much further. Since the first bubble burst in the first glass of sparkling wine in Hautvillers Abbey, producers in Champagne have maintained that their terroirs are unique to the region and any other wine that bears the name is a pretender to their effervescent throne.
Having been defined and delimited by laws passed in 1927, the geography of Champagne is easily explained in a paragraph, but it takes a lifetime to understand it.
Ninety-three miles east of Paris, Champagne’s production zone spreads across 319 villages and encompasses roughly 85,000 acres. 17 of those villages have a legal entitlement to Grand Cru ranking, while 42 may label their bottles ‘Premier Cru.’ Four main growing areas (Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, the Côte des Blancs and the Côte des Bar) encompass nearly 280,000 individual plots of vines, each measuring a little over one thousand square feet.
The lauded wine writer Peter Liem expands the number of sub-regions from four to seven, dividing the Vallée de la Marne into the Grand Vallée and the Vallée de la Marne; adding the Coteaux Sud d’Épernay and combining the disparate zones between the heart of Champagne and Côte de Bar into a single sub-zone.
Courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild
Lying beyond even Liem’s overview is a permutation of particulars; there are nearly as many micro-terroirs in Champagne as there are vineyard plots. Climate, subsoil and elevation are immutable; the talent, philosophies and techniques of the growers and producers are not. Ideally, every plot is worked according to its individual profile to establish a stamp of origin, creating unique wines that compliment or contrast when final cuvées are created.
Champagne is predominantly made up of relatively flat countryside where cereal grain is the agricultural mainstay. Gently undulating hills are higher and more pronounced in the north, near the Ardennes, and in the south, an area known as the Plateau de Langres, and the most renowned vineyards lie on the chalky hills to the southwest of Reims and around the town of Épernay. Moderately steep terrain creates ideal vineyard sites by combining the superb drainage characteristic of chalky soils with excellent sun exposure, especially on south and east facing slopes.
… Yet another reason why this tiny slice of northern France, a mere 132 square miles, remains both elite and precious.
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Posted on 2025.06.05 in France, Champagne, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
Southwest Reformation: Bold Winemakers Revive Historical Vineyards and Reimagine Appellations in France’s Most Stunningly Diverse Wine Region + Southern Transformation in Châteauneuf-de-Pape
The struggle between new and old, youth and authority, innovation and tradition are part of the human drama; in France’s fertile southwest, this clash of cultures has produced marvelous results along with a few setbacks. Some young vignerons have adopted the same techniques that aspirational winemakers have tried in Bordeaux and found that many of them go wrong in their home terroir; some of the issues have been associated with an overall decline in the number of wine drinkers, in France especially. According to Fabien Jouves, from a venerable Cahors farming family, “To make great wine you have to drink great wine, and a lot of vignerons here don’t drink much wine at all.”
But we prefer to dwell of the success stories: Growers who have learned to fine-tune their agricultural practices, paying closer attention to east-facing parcels that are subject to gentle morning sun, less overt new oak in the aging, less extraction. New paradigms are being discovered along with ancient, untended vineyards, and the result is an engaging, postmodern phase of enology in the Southwest, from which we have assembled some top producers.
The Southwest: France’s Hidden Corner
How France’s fifth-largest winegrowing region remains one of its least known (and mostly underappreciated) is another mystery. Tucked away between the Pyrénées mountains in the South, Bordeaux in the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, France’s ‘Hidden Corner’ has twice as many vineyards as Burgundy and boasts some of France’s most beautiful countryside with vineyards scattered across rolling fields and picturesque river valleys.
Roughly divided into four sub-regions, each area has its own personality and unique wine profile: Bergerac and Dordogne, which specializes in dry white blends, full-bodied reds and sweet dessert wines; the Pyrénées, known for rustic Tannat, the variety that dominates the area’s most renowned appellation, Madiran; Garonne and Tarn, famous more for breathtaking scenery that top shelf wine and Lot, home to the incomparable Malbec-based ‘Black Wines’ of Cahors.
Cahors: ‘Lot’ Runs Through It
(The Cradle of Malbec)
While the Colorado River was busy carving out the Grand Canyon, a similar, if slightly less dramatic geological phenomenon was happening in Southwest France, where the Lot River was at work creating the Lot Valley, where, instead of leaving behind a big hole, there are steeped terraces ideal for vine cultivation. The terroir of Cahors is loosely defined by the differing soil types and the exposures created by these terraces.
The Plateau, referred to ‘les Causses’, lies at an elevation of nearly a thousand feet; it contains the Kimmeridgian limestone also found in Chablis and parts of Champagne. In addition, this area holds layers of iron rich clays with sporadic patches of rare blue clay, lending structure and energy to the wines. Below that, the Fourth Terrace, at an average elevation of 788 feet, offers a mix of limestone scree and ancient alluvial soils from the river, creating wines with bright red fruit and rustic earthiness. The Third Terrace is closer to the river, and at an average elevation of 558 feet it is primarily composed of clay, sand and the famous ‘galets roulés’ which imbue the wines with bold, black fruit and supple tannins, adding roundness in the way that Merlot softens Cabernet Sauvignon in Bordeaux.
Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve
Cahors
Individually, their pedigrees are impressive: Matthieu, Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve’s winemaker, is a graduate of the Institute of Enology in Bordeaux, and Catherine, the oenologist, holds a BTS viticulture and oenology from Blanquefort. Together, Matthieu and Catherine make magic. In 1999, they took over a 12-acre estate of old Malbec vines in Prayssac, a short distance from Cahors, and set out to make wines intended to transcend the rustic image of Cahors. Their first vintage was ‘Les Laquets’ and they shortly expanded the range to include separate cuvées intended to reflect the identity of the different terroirs of the estate.
Catherine Maisonneuve and Matthieu Cosse, Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve
Says Catherine: “Wine is the ambassador of a terroir and a winemaker is the interpreter. Thus, to obtain perfect grapes that will clearly express the qualities of the Cahors terroir, everything in the vineyard must be natural.”
As such, they are certified organic by Ecocert and farm their vineyards biodynamically with a plan to become Demeter certified as well. Everything done in the vineyard aims at building of balanced soils to produce optimal conditions for ripening the grapes and making harmonious, aromatically complex and precise wines. Today, Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve totals 42 acres planted predominantly to Malbec, with small amounts of Merlot and Tannat.
All plots are situated in primary locations on the gravel and clay Third Terrace above the Lot River.
6. 2021 Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve ‘La Fage’, 2021 Cahors ($26)
Still in the bloom of youth, ‘La Fage’ has nose lush with macerated black currant, blackberry and plum. The mouth-coating tannins may require a little more time to settle in, but it is on its way—cellar this wine or drink it tonight with a well-marbled piece of beef.
7. Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve ‘Le Combal’, 2021 Cahors ($23)
A beautiful example of the ‘new’ Cahors—a finer-grained and elegant Malbec which sacrifices none of the variety’s iron-scented power and structure of traditional Cahors, but focuses on fruit. Black currant and cherry shine through notes of pipe smoke, clay and bitter herbs with tannins that are woven through without a sense of dominance.
5. Domaine Cosse et Maisonneuve ‘Cheval en Tête’, 2022 VdF Southwest-Cahors Blanc ($18)
70% Ugni Blanc, and a 30% blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The wine shows bright grapefruit-infused bitters along with floral and honey notes, finishing with a slight smokiness that resolves in a citrus bite.
Jurançon: Acid Trip in the Far South
Overlapping climates and cultures leads to some odd dichotomies. For example, whiffs of Bordeaux can be scented on the breeze far south of the genuine boundary; in Jurançon, even modest farmhouses are still called ‘châteaux,’ and the weather is similar to that of Graves, but raised up a notch in intensity.
“We’re twenty-five miles from ski slopes and fifty from Biarritz (a luxurious seaside tourist destination),” says Jurançon winemaker Charles Hours to explain the unique terroir of the region. “We are hot and humid, yet produce wines that are alive with acidity. Jurançon, in fact, is a worthy model for fighting climate change.”
Jurançon is known for white wines, dry and sweet, but unlike Graves, where Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc rule, the principal Jurançon grapes are Gros Manseng and Petit Manseng, capable of producing fresh, aromatic, and potentially long-lived wines. The terrain undulates, and most Jurançon vineyards are situated on the upper slopes of the valleys and on the top of the hills where vines confront three soil types: In the northeast, the terroir is dominated by Poudingue de Jurançon (Puddingstone), a pebbly limestone mix often showing as a stony clay topsoil. The southern section is mainly layers of sedimentary rock know as ‘flysch’ alternating between layers of sandstone or limestone and sand or clay, while the appellation’s western limits is a mix of both Poudingue and flysch.
In terms of style, Jurançon lay claim to three: Dry white (sec), sweeter white labeled simply Jurançon and a requiring residual sugar level of 40 gram/liter, and extremely sweet white made from late-harvested grapes (Vendanges Tardives). All are based around two grapes, Petit and Gros Manseng, with the former providing finesse and the latter volume. These two grapes must make up at least half of any Jurançon or Jurançon Sec blend and are the only two permitted varieties in Jurançon Vendanges Tardives—a wine capable of rivaling some of the top-name labels in Sauternes and Barsac.
These are all wines that check all the boxes in what white wine drinkers look for—balanced acidity, memorable aromatics and an ability to mature and become more complex, adding notes of gingerbread and dried apricot. Why Jurançon’s versatile styles are not more celebrated, even by the wine-loving public, is a bit of a mystery. Why the Manseng sisters, Gros and Petit, do not enjoy more prominence on the varietal stage is equally perplexing.
The good news, of course, is that these wines remain ripe for discovery.
Clos de la Vierge
Jurançon Sec
Venerable with gravitas. No two words better summarize the recent past of Clos de la Vierge, where, from the walled acres of Gros Manseng, Anne-Marie Barrère crafted exquisite wine for over fifty years, relying on vines planted by her father in 1945. The clos is a marvelous sight as it snakes up the steep, sunny hillside in curving rows that allow for the maximum sun exposure. The product has been described as ‘… like drinking liquid minerals, bursting in every direction with icicles of gold and silver, then green-gold. Of course, there was fruit, which leaned into tart tropical along with sweet citrus, but the wine was more about sensation.’
Madame and Anne-Marie in the cellar, with Etti, the dog
Barrère retired at 95, and the current proprietor and winemaker is Lionel Osmin, a unique character unto himself. Lionel Osmin & Cie began with a group of friends who shared a passion for wines from France’s occasionally overlooked southwest. With this in mind, they created a quality wine-broking house based on these wines following the example of other regions such as Burgundy or the Rhône.
Says Osmin: “The result is a range of wines whose characteristics are faithful to the region and which are made to share the joy of discovering the vines and wines that are enjoyed and loved.”
1. Clos de la Vierge ‘Le Carré de Peès’, 2023 Jurançon Sec ($23)
* ‘Carré’ means ‘square’ and refers to a plot of favored vineyard similar to a climat or lieu-dit. It appears on many Jurançon labels. The wine is a confident and comforting blend of peach, lanolin and sweet spices showing a creamy palate tinted with grilled pineapple and citrus zest. Mineral-driven throughout, there is a distinct salinity on the finish.
Clos Cancaillaü
Jurançon Sec, Jurançon
When Lionel Osmin purchased Clos de la Vierge, he also took over Close Cancaillaü; another exceptional terroir that faced the Pyrénées and was filled with vines between 40 and a hundred years old.
Clos Cancaillaü
Lionel Osmin
2. Clos Cancaillaü ‘Au Lavoir’, 2022 Jurançon Sec ($32)
100% Petit Manseng from 40-80 year old vines in Lahourcade and Cuqueron. Dry wines crafted from grapes historically devoted to dessert wines often share some of the intense notes of cream and honey, with the sweetness hovering in the wings, present but intentionally repressed. This is a note of complexity that makes this versatile wine shine. The crisp acidic backbone carries notes of pears, lime curd and apple.
3. Clos Cancaillaü ‘Le Dernier Carré’, 2016 Jurançon ($32)
A tropical cornucopia with honeyed mango, pineapple and a touch of butterscotch developing as the wine continues to evolve and mature.
4. Clos Cancaillaü ‘Crème de Tête’, 2017 Jurançon ($28)
A dessert-style wine made from 100% Petit Manseng, traditionally crafted by allowing the grapes to dry on mats before fermentation. This straw-wine method concentrates flavors and evaporates much of the water, leaving tiny quantities of rich, nectar-like juice. The resulting wine is drenched in honey and saffron, with notes of candied pear and dried apricot behind a balancing zing of citrus.
Hidden Gem
Clos Joliette
Jurançon
All that is gold does not glitter and all that glitters is not gold, but ‘Cépage Petit Manseng, Barrique No. 2,’ a remarkable elixir known only to a discerning few, is both. It is produced in minute quantities from ungrafted Petit Manseng vines planted in 1929 on a terraced amphitheater 85 miles south of Sauternes. At its point of origin, Maurice Migné cleared a single hectare of forest in Jurançon’s Chappelle de Rousse, a complex terroir of rounded stones, silica, limestone, and clay with a subsoil rich in iron. Bertrand de Lur Saluces (Château d’Yquem’s director for over fifty years) said that the Joliette estate farmed the only terroir on earth that could rival his own.
For much of the estate’s century-long history, this wine was only made in select vintages and was sold privately to friends and a handful of restaurants.
When Lionel Osmin purchased the now-neglected vineyard, he struck a deal that allowed him to also buy the private stock from 1993 to 2009; he singled out the best old vintages and released the best of these for sale. Critics were, needless to say, blown away.
Clos Joliette
What distinguishes vintage Joliette from other wines made in this style is that the grapes for each cuvée were picked at various stages of maturity, so the portfolio ranges from nearly dry to fully moelleux depending on the year, and even the barrel. Lionel Osmin categorized each ‘unicorn’ lot by color-coding their wax capsules to indicate residual sugar.
Among the more remarkable benefits of the remarkable Jurançon climate is that to produce late-harvested wines, hang-times can (and do) extend into December and beyond, by which point frost and intense sun has shriveled the grapes nearly to the raisin stage.
Clos Joliette ‘Yellow – Cépage Petit Manseng, Barrique No. 2’, 2018 Jurançon ($620)
The yellow cap indicates residual sugars between 10 and 30 gram/liter. The grapes were treated with minimal intervention throughout vinification, bottled without fining or filtration, having enjoyed six years aging long aging in oak barrels sourced from Sauternes’ Château de Fargues. The wine displays a depth that is rare to encounter anywhere; it’s loaded with toasted nuts, beeswax and honey, vanilla and dried stone fruit.
Golden Treasures
Domaine Cauhapé
Jurançon
“Cauhapé’s approach is special,” says grower and winemaker Henri Ramonteu. “It involves a unique dialogue with nature to express the quintessence of the typical and forgotten grapes of our unique Jurançon appellation.”
Cauhapé vineyards spreads over more than a hundred acres of steep hillsides. With a south, south-east exposure and differing altitude between the parcels of vines (the highest 400m) the vines benefit from optimum climatic conditions.
Henri Ramonteu (center), Domaine Cauhapé
Says Ramonteu, “We cultivate five local grape-varieties. Petit Manseng contributes to the making of great sweet wines and equally to great dry wines. Gros Manseng and Courbu bring finesse and fruit. Camaralet and Lauzet are ancient varieties that we are reintroducing little by little to give birth to a new generation of dry Jurançon wines.”
Domaine Cauhapé ‘Quintessence du Petit-Manseng’, 2000 Jurançon ($198) 375 ml
100% Petit Manseng harvested the second half of December after three or four sortings, from a south-facing vineyard where the soil is silicate with 39% clay. The wine is 100% barrel-fermented in new oak and sees two years aging. The finished produce reflects the praline and orange notes vibrant with acidity and a lengthy finish that show hints of bitter chocolate.
Domaine Cauhapé ‘Quintessence – Folie de Janvier’, 2000 Jurançon ($270) 375 ml
The last grapes for this wine are picked after the January frosts, and yet the wine itself is crafted to maintain freshness. Yields are restricted to six hectoliters per hectare (Château d’Yquem’s yields range from eight to 10 hectoliters per hectare) and the grapes are treated to extensive sorting before being fermented on new wood. The wine displays honey, orange marmalade, nougat, roasted apple with spice notes of white pepper.
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Southern Transformation
Domaine de Panisse
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Fresh air is always welcome in any southerly, somewhat hidebound appellation, and no one better to bring it in to Châteauneuf-du-Pape than siblings Marilou and Axel Vacheron and partner Antoine Robert. In 2020, the trio took over the 15th century Panisse farmhouse in the far northeast corner of the appellation, where they sensed (correctly) that the terroir had not yet reached its full potential.
The property was filled with Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Cinsault vines that had been planted in the 1920s. In fact, Panisse’s oldest-vine parcel, located in lieu-dit ‘La Janasse,’ is reserved for its rarest blend.
Axel (center) and Marilou Vacheron with husband Antoine Robert (left) at Domaine de Panisse
“Grapes are harvested by hand in small crates,” says Marilou Vacheron, “and currently, we bring them to the cellars at Le Clos du Caillou, just five minutes to the south, to be vinified. Grapes are fermented on indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled tanks—stainless steel, cement or tapered wooden casks, then aged in demi-muids or barrels for approximately 15 months. We bottle unfined and unfiltered, with minimal added sulfites.”
The current place of vinification is fitting; it’s a family affair. Caillou owner Sylvie Vacheron is the mother of both Marilou and Axel; both were trained by Caillou winemaker Bruno Gaspard.
Winemaker Bruno Gaspard and Sylvie Vacheron
Domaine Vacheron, whom we have written about affectionately, is one of the most influential and elite estates in Sancerre. At the helm, Jean-Dominque and Jean-Laurent Vacheron currently farm 84 acres of Sauvignon Blanc and 27 acres of Pinot Noir, most in top terroirs including the Les Romains vineyard. Recently, they the property has begun acquiring vines in the most Guigne Chèvre, En Grands Champs, Paradis and Chambrates, among the most sought-after , silex-heavy lieux-dits in Sancerre.
Extending the Vacheron influence beyond the Loire, Jean-Denis Vacheron and his wife Sylvie, (the daughter of Le Clos du Caillou manager Claude Pouizin) began to run Caillou in 1995. Tragically, Jean-Denis Vacheron died in an accident in 2002.
The purchase of Panisse required a leap through more hoops than a wedding band: “It was difficult to acquire the estate as several important families in Châteauneuf-du-Pape also wanted to buy it,” says Marilou. In the end, SAFER (the French land management agency) chose Marilou, 27, and her brother Axel, 24, because of their youth.
Regarding the property’s terroir, Antoine Robert adds, “The surrounding area—with cypress and pine trees, fields of lavender and olive trees—helps to maintain a rich biodiversity which feeds the soils and keeps vineyards healthy. What’s more, the mix of terroir here, with sand and clay and large quartz stones, is particularly drought-resistant, a necessary trait amid ever warmer growing seasons.”
8. Domaine de Panisse ‘Le Mas’, 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape ($56)
55% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 20% Mourvèdre, 5% Cinsault. ‘Le Mas’ refers to the fifteenth century farmhouse. The wine displays all the nuance and depth of a classic CdP; ripe black cherries, licorice, wild rose, brown spices with ginger and white pepper on the finish.
Domaine de Panisse ‘Le Mas’, 2021 Châteauneuf-du-Pape ($119) 1.5 Liter
A magnum of the same wine, capable of aging longer and more gracefully over what could conceivably be decades.
Vintage 2021: Year of the Vignneron
Châteauneuf-du-Pape saw a difficult vintage in 2021. 18 different grapes are permitted under the Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOP regulations, and it is fair to say that some varieties fared better than others. This is where art of blending reaches its apogee, and where we find that the variance of vintage may create a number of unexpected masterpieces when winemakers are required to dig deeply into their tool-box to build a presentable product.
2021 was such a vintage, and as such, it has been referred to as ‘The Year of the Vigneron.’
Of 2021 at Domaine de Panisse, Axel Vacheron reports, “Following a very mild winter, spring began with a frost episode on the night of April 7 to 8, killing young buds and slowing down the vine’s growth cycle. The season remained cool and then gave way to a summer marked by episodes of heat as well as some precipitation, including a good shower in early August, which spared the vineyard from water stress. Finally, the cool summer nights coupled with the spring frost created a heterogeneous yield between the plots, but whose health remained intact. In the fall, however, the harvest was slowed down by significant storms that led us to modify our practices and make decisive choices to meet the demands of a very trying vintage. The result is fresh and enjoyable wines in their youth, making 2021 a vintage reminiscent of those of the 90s, and with good aging potential.”
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Posted on 2025.05.27 in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Cahors, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Southern Rhone, South West | Read more...
Higher Grounds: Showcasing the Versatility of Gamay in the Hilly Uplands of Beaujolais’ Lesser Known Cru Villages of Chiroubles, Côte-de-Brouilly, and Brouilly.
3 Memorial Weekend Holiday Packs Picks
Memorial Day is a time to reflect on mortality as well as to celebrate the rebirth of warmth and leisure time. No wine captures the complexity emotions better than Beaujolais, which can be light and lyrical as well as profound and nuanced. These are ideal wines with which to celebrate Memorial Day, the gateway to summer and the joy of transcendence.
- 7-Bottle Chiroubles Sampler Pack $234
- 7-Bottle Côte-de-Brouilly Sampler Pack $264
- 4-Bottle Brouilly Sampler Pack $134
The Beaujolais Underground: A Veritable Mosaic of Soil
The biggest error a Beaujolais neophyte makes is an expectation one-dimensional predictability. To be fair, the mistake easy to make based on the region’s reliance on Gamay, a grape that elsewhere may produce simple and often mediocre wine.
In Beaujolais’ wondrous terroir, however, it thrives.
In fact, this terroir is so complex that it nearly defies description. But Inter-Beaujolais certainly tried: Between 2009 and 2018, they commissioned a colossal field study to establish a detailed cartography of the vineyards and to create a geological snapshot of the exceptional richness found throughout Beaujolais’ 12 appellations.
Beaujolais may not be geographically extensive, but geologically, it’s a different story. The region bears witness to 500 million years of complex interaction between the eastern edge of the Massif Central and the Alpine phenomenon of the Tertiary period, leaving one of the richest and most complex geologies in France. Over 300 distinct soil types have been identified. Fortunately, Gamay—the mainstay grape, accounting for 97% of plantings—flourishes throughout these myriad terroirs. In the south, the soil may be laden with clay, and sometimes chalk; the landscape is characterized by rolling hills. The north hosts sandy soils that are often granitic in origin. This is the starting point wherein each appellation, and indeed, each lieu-dit draws its individual character.
There are ten Crus, the top red wine regions of Beaujolais, all of them located in the hillier areas to the north, which offer freer-draining soils and better exposure, thereby helping the grapes to mature more fully.
Courtesy of Wine Scholar Guild
Unearthing Potential: Beaujolais’ Lesser-Known Villages
Beaujolais is a painter’s dream, a patchwork of undulating hills and bucolic villages. It is also unique in that relatively inexpensive land has allowed a number of dynamic new wine producers to enter the business. In the flatter south, easy-drinking wines are generally made using technique known as carbonic maceration, an anaerobic form of closed-tank fermentation that imparts specific, recognizable flavors (notably, bubblegum and Concord grape). Often sold under the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations, such wines tend to be simple, high in acid and low in tannin, and are ideal for the local bistro fare. Beaujolais’ suppler wines generally come from the north, where the granite hills are filled with rich clay and limestone. These wines are age-worthy, and show much more complexity and depth.
The top of Beaujolais’ classification pyramid is found in the north, especially in the appellations known as Cru Beaujolais: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Brouilly, Côte-de-Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour.
Not all Beaujolais Crus are created equal, and some have proven more ‘brandable’ than others. Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent and Fleurie have all found main-character energy on this Gamay-red carpet. But it is generally in the appellations without as much surface celebrity that some of the best bargains can be found. This week we’ll highlight three of them: Chiroubles, Brouilly, and the AOP-within-an-AOP, Côte-de-Brouilly along with the game-changing winemakers they have fostered. Among the more amazing wines in this collection are those from Gamay vines that are approaching, or have surpassed, the century mark.
Chiroubles: Terroir Lifted by Altitude
When a single grape variety is called upon to express itself in multiple personalities, elevation takes on special significance. As the highest of Beaujolais’ ten Crus, Chiroubles produces wine with unique charms, combining delicacy and elegance with a crisp spine of acidity—features that arise from an increase of solar rays, greater temperature fluctuations, scarce water resources and more dramatic weather patterns. Chiroubles’ beauty is the face of challenge.
With a scant eight hundred acres under vine, Gamay finds a special affinity for the steep, sandy slopes of eroded granite, which stores and reflects daytime heat to help balance the fierce diurnal shift. Meanwhile, good drainage ensures that the vines focus on the production of high-quality berries rather than leaf growth.
Chiroubles’ vineyards were first established by Benedictine monks during the Middle Ages, and the region (officially delimited as an AOP in the 1930s along Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent) was home to Victor Pulliat, whose work in root grafting helped save the French wine industry from extinction during the phylloxera scourge of the 19th century.
Seven-Bottle Côte-de-Brouilly Sampler Pack for $234
Domaine Steeve Charvet
Cru Chiroubles
Steeve (not a typo) Charvet is the sixth generation of Chiroublesois to cultivate Gamay vines in the appellation; his father Armand began to bottle wine and sell it directly from the property and through trade fairs. Steeve took over in 2010.
“I have been passionate about viticulture since I was little and I am in love with nature,” he says. “So, the profession of winemaker was an obvious choice for me. I respect a human-scale production and its environment, to date I have twenty acres. My wines come exclusively from my vines, I do not buy grapes or wine, only the grapes from my vines are vinified.”
Steeve Charvet, Domaine Steeve Charvet
Steeve considers himself an ‘anti-fashion’ winemaker who makes it a point of honor to be as non-interventionist as possible and to allow the maximum potential of each vintage to express itself. This methodology, admittedly, has pitfalls: “Nature can sometimes be cruel, such as during periods of frost, hail, or severe drought, while it can also be generous with welcome rain and ideal sunshine. We must know how to let it be and harvest what it gives us. Our vines are obviously not irrigated, and it is the water from the sky and the sunshine that play a role in the vintage effect.”
1 Domaine Steeve Charvet, 2021 Chiroubles ($28)
Not to overuse the alliterations, but plum, peony and pink peppercorn all perfume this charming, entry-level Chiroubles. As is his usual M.O., Charvet ferments on indigenous yeasts, and aging occurs in concrete tanks and old Burgundy barrels to emphasize the purity and character of the Gamay grape.
Domaine de La Grosse Pierre
Cru Chiroubles
Like Steeve Charvet, Pauline Passot comes from a winemaking family in Chiroubles, but unlike Steeve, she was not initially drawn to the profession. She studied marketing, and ultimately became a sommelier at the Michelin star restaurant Pierre Orsi in Lyon. It was there that she realized that her family wines from Chiroubles stood head-to-head with many of the pricier and more exclusive wines of France, and that there was an opportunity for her to improve even upon that. Winemaking studies in Beaune were followed by stints at several wineries, including Lafarge.
Pauline Passot, Domaine de la Grosse Pierre
“In 2016, I oversaw my first harvest,” she says,”and from there worked my way into the now fifteen acres on fermage (rented) from my parents. One of my first steps was to begin conversion to organic methods, but using traditional viniculture: Fermentation is in a mixture of steel and 600-liter casks, there is little destemming, little extraction and a low fermentation temperature. I believe that it is precise attention to detail that makes a wine shine.”
After several poor years for Beaujolais Nouveau, Pauline is the most highly acclaimed rans of Beaujolais growers creating serious terroir-driven wines.
2 Domaine de La Grosse Pierre ‘Claudius’, 2022 Chiroubles – La Grosse Pierre ($29)
Sourced from high-altitude vineyards nearly a hundred years old, this bright and elegant Chiroubles is flecked with crunchy red berries, violets and a hint of spice. A nice wine to serve with a slight chill on a summer’s day.
3 Domaine de La Grosse Pierre, 2023 Chiroubles – La Grosse Pierre ($30)
‘La Gross Pierre’ is Pauline Passot’s largest holding, a ten-acre, east-facing lieu-dit boasting the classic pink granite terroir of the region, where vines average 45 years in age. The wine shows sweet cranberry, spring strawberries and velvety tannins.
4 Domaine de La Grosse Pierre ‘Pauline Passot’, 2020 Chiroubles – Grille Midi ($43)
‘Grille-Midi’ is Passot’s flagship lieu-dit, a parcel of vines that extends into Fleurie and is considered one of the top vineyards in Beaujolais. Vinification is classic whole-cluster open carbonic, aged in neutral demi-muids and bottled without filtering and minimal sulfites at bottling. An elevated expression of old-vine Beaujolais, the wine shows bright, ripe fruit balanced by acidity.
Domaine de Vernus
Cru Chiroubles
In literature, a character study is a critical examination of a single character to understand not only their significance to a given narrative, but as a way of better understanding the work as a whole. This week, we will undertake a similar focus on a lone, but phenomenal Beaujolais winemaker (Guillaume Rouget of Domaine de Vernus) in order to see how a single talented vigneron can exemplify the moods, the changes, the whims of a region where a diverse terroir remains committed to a single grape variety, Gamay.
Guillaume Rouget with father Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Emmanuel Rouget in Vosne-Romanée and Flagey-Echézeaux
Rouget certainly comes with a proper pedigree: The grand-nephew of Henri Jayer (the Burgundian innovator known for making some of the most critically acclaimed and expensive Pinot Noirs in the world), he was trained to the vine from childhood, first by his father Emmanuel Rouget and then at the École des Vins de Bourgogne in Beaune. When he decided to join forces with Domaine de Vernus owner Frédéric Jametton in Régnié-Durette, it was to pursue a shared goal: Producing elegant, racy wines that display the intense fruitiness of Gamay along with age-worthy structure that can develop complexity over time alongside the best Burgundies. Guillaume is in charge of the entire production chain, from cultivation through all phases of vinification, ultimately taking part in the marketing of the estate’s wines. A true renaissance man in Beaujolais, his handling of various top Crus may not be ‘Beaujolais Nouveau,’ but it is very much the new Beaujolais.
5 Domaine de Vernus, 2019 Chiroubles ($27)
From the highest-altitude vines in Beaujolais with an average age of 63 years in the Verbomet lieu-dit and 36 years in Châtenay, both featuring terroir built on shallow granitic soil. The back-breaking work required to harvest on the steep slopes of Chiroubles produces an airy, intensely perfumed wine with silky notes of black cherry, plum and raspberry with a pronounced minerality and electric acidity.
Mélanie et Daniel Bouland
Cru Chiroubles
Daniel Bouland has been called reclusive and solitary—he has also been called the best artisanal vigneron in Beaujolais. When collectors compare him to more flamboyant regional names like Foillard and Lapierre, it is always favorably, at least in part because of his obsessive respect for micro-terroirs—in French, ‘pur’ terroir. Working with fewer than twenty acres of impeccably cultivated vines in the Morgon lieux-dits of Corcelette, Bellevue and Les Delys, plus small parcels in Chiroubles and Cote de Brouilly, Bouland’s wines are approachable upon release, but created with such a backbone that his terroir’s mineral nuances will continue to become more pronounced with five or more years in the cellar.
Daniel Bouland, Mélanie et Daniel Bouland
With the success of Cuvée Mélanie, named for Daniel Bouland’s daughter, Bouland has added her name to current bottlings beneath the name ‘Mélanie et Daniel Bouland’, possibly in advance of the younger Bouland ultimately taking charge.
6 Mélanie et Daniel Bouland, 2022 Chiroubles – Châtenay ($41)
When the name Châtenay appears hyphen-linked to Chiroubles, it refers to a specific granitic terroir within the Chiroubles appellation near the Morgon border. Typical of wines from this area, it exhibits aromas of black cherries, blackberries, orange bitters, violets and sweet spices.
Guy Breton
Cru Chiroubles
Guy Breton took over the family domain from his grandfather in 1986—up until then, the family had been selling their fruit to the large cooperative wineries which dominated the region. The rise of imported yeast cultures to impart flavor and aroma, the use of high-tech carbonic maceration and the widespread commercialization of Beaujolais Nouveau played hell with the region’s reputation, and to much of the wine world, Beaujolais came to be seen as one-dimensional, lacking any expression of the native terroir.
Guy Breton
Following the example of traditionalist Jules Chauvet, Guy and three other local vignerons initiated a ‘back-to-nature’ movement, calling for called for a return to the old practices of viticulture and vinification. This began with old vines and refusing to use synthetic herbicides or pesticides. They harvested late and sorted rigorously to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalization and filtration.
“The end result allows my wine to express itself naturally,” he says, “without make-up or plastic surgery: rustic, spicy, loaded with schist minerals and at the same time, refreshing and deep-down delicious.”
7 Guy Breton ‘Cuvée Léa’, 2020 Chiroubles ($39)
Guy Breton loves to vinify in a style that is light, bright and juicy—as such, the high-altitude, steep, decomposed granite slopes and old vines of Chiroubles are well suited. From three, recently acquired acres of 60-year-old vines, ‘Cuvée Lea’ shows floral, succulent aromatics bursting with notes of forest berries, and so delicate on its feet that it serves as a user-friendly counterpoint to some of the more structured Cru wines from Beaujolais.
Côte-de-Brouilly: At the Summit
Mont Brouilly is the icon that defines this Beaujolais Cru, and as cream rises to the top, the most elegant and nuanced wines of the region are found on the upper slopes of the mountain. These are captured in the Côte-de-Brouilly AOP, which is surrounded by lower-lying vineyards of the larger appellation, Brouilly.
The slopes of Mont Brouilly are littered with bluestone. This distinctive blue-green rock, known as diorite, is a major factor in the wines’ flavor profile, contributing to liveliness, structure and mineral character. Unlike granite, which covers about a quarter of Brouilly terroir, bluestone has a better capacity to absorb rain and limit erosion. Unlike granite, bluestone is not siliceous and does not disintegrate into sand; it tends to produce clay, which also improves water retention. Not only that but there are also noticeable differences between diorite wines from the mountain’s cooler north side, often marked by licorice notes. The south side of the mountain produces richer fruit wines, so if a winemaker is fortunate enough to have plots on different sides of the hill, she can play as a palette to build nuanced assemblages.
Atop the mountain, the chapel Notre-Dame aux Raisins, was built in the vain hope of protecting the vineyard powdery mildew, frost and hail that had ravaged it in 1850 and 1852.
Seven-Bottle Côte-de-Brouilly Sampler Pack for $264
Julien Duport
Cru Côte de Brouilly
In Julien Duport’s family, winemaking skipped a generation. Although his grandparents planted and farmed Gamay in the Côte-de-Brouilly, his father became a pompier—a fireman. At the age of 21, having completed an undergraduate degree in enology at the local Bel Air college and working with winemaker Laurent Martray and others, Julien took over the family acres, and rather than dousing flames, opted to set the world of Beaujolais on fire.
His near obsessive passion for tradition is infused throughout his process. He farms with a horse and plow, and throughout this time-consuming effort, he meditates. Like his grandfather, he ferments in cement tanks using native wild yeasts, following which the wines enjoy a long élevage in neutral barrels and large foudres and are then bottled without any filtration or fining.
Julien Duport
He says, “I believe these wines are a historical throwback to the time when Beaujolais growers used to sell their wine in barrels, long before carbonic maceration became the trendy winemaking technique that has now usurped the rich and interesting wines of the past.”
‘The past’ meets the present in La Boucheratte, Julien’s schist-flecked vineyard where the Gamay vines were planted 102 years ago.
“This site was tended by horse up until 1985 and then again when I took control,” he explains. “It’s incredible that vines this old are producing at all anymore, and all the more incredible when you taste La Boucheratte. Part of the intensity comes from the windiness of the site, which leads the Gamay skins to get tough and thick and filled with tannin. Rather than coaxing an extraction of this site, I attempt to unearth the fleshiest representation of Gamay possible. I reject the homogenization of Beaujolais in general and Côte de Brouilly in particular.”
1 Julien Duport, 2020 Côte-de-Brouilly – Brouilly ($29)
Avoid confusion going in: ‘Brouilly’ is a lieu-dit on the slopes of the mountain quite entirely within the Côte-de-Brouilly AOP, not Brouilly. This vineyard of 60-year-old vines distinguishes itself with a dose of blue schist in the pink granite soils. (Schist is made up of compressed sheets of clay formed by the plate movements when the mountain was formed). The wine shows resin-like aromatics with vibrant spiced red- and blue-fruit character.
2 Julien Duport ‘La Sueur au Front’, 2020 Côte-de-Brouilly ($49)
Translated literally, ‘La Sueur au Front’ means ‘sweat of the brow,’ but the assurance is that the reference is not to the content of the bottle but from the fact that the vineyard is on a 45% slope and requires an inordinate amount of labor to harvest. The bluestone terroir produces a spicy character, and the elevation leaves an acidic astringency balanced by the fruit.
3 Julien Duport ‘La Boucheratte’, 2020 Côte-de-Brouilly ($38)
100% Gamay on a steep slope of bluestone from vines planted in 1900, 1920, 1940 and 1948. The tiny parcel has western exposure between 800 and 1200 feet in elevation. Semi-carbonic maceration followed traditional maceration lasting 17 days, then aged for 18 months in neutral barrels. The wine maintains a bit of youthful intensity, indicating that it will continue to mature effortlessly. The size and weight of the wine is astonishing.
Mélanie et Daniel Bouland
Côte de Brouilly
4 Mélanie et Daniel Bouland ‘Cuvée Mélanie’, 2022 Côte-de-Brouilly ($41)
The cuvée is from 70-year-old vines, and demonstrates the rich, suave tannins that show pedigree, both for early drinking and further growth in the cellar. The wine is pure and sappy with black cherry and summery herbs, but shows a smoky top note almost reminiscent of a Rhône.
Guy Breton
Côte de Brouilly
5 Guy Breton, 2020 Côte-de-Brouilly ($39)
Textbook Breton, who favors an early harvest, cool fermentation, shorter maceration, neutral oak aging, and a unique fermentation technique Many practitioners of semi-carbonic maceration allow the juice at the bottom of the tank to sit with the remaining grapes, whose skins impart more tannin and density to the juice. Guy, in contrast, removes this juice and transports it to another tank in order to give the final wine less concentration and tannin. The wine is ethereal and juicy with black and blue berries.
Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées
Côte de Brouilly
With a name from a fairy tale (‘House in the Land of the Golden Stones’), Domaine des Terres Dorées is a 150-acre vineyard located in Charnay, just north of Lyon. Owner/winemaker Jean Paul Brun is a champion of ‘old-style Beaujolais.’ And by ‘old’, he means an era before pesticides and herbicides, and especially, a time when native yeasts alone were used to ferment.
He says: “Virtually all Beaujolais is now made by adding a particular strain of industrial yeast known as 71B. It’s a laboratory product made in Holland from a tomato base, and when you taste Beaujolais with banana and candy aromas, 71B is the culprit. 71B produces a beverage, but without authenticity or charm.”
Jean-Paul Brun, Domaine des Terres Dorées
Brun also insists that Beaujolais drinks best at a lower degree of alcohol and that there is no need to systematically add sugar to the must (chaptalize) to reach alcohol levels of 12 to 13%.
“My Beaujolais is made to be pleasurable,” he maintains. “Light, fruity and delicious, not an artificially inflated wine that is only meant to shine at tasting competitions.”
“The emphasis is not on weight, but on fruit,” he adds. “Beaujolais as it once was and as it should be.”
6 Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées, 2021 Côte-de-Brouilly ($23)
100% Gamay, but treated much like Pinot Noir in Burgundy, in this case with concrete tank fermentation starting with a ‘pied de cuve,’ where a small quantity of grapes are picked a couple of weeks before harvest to kick-start the fermentation process. There’s a lot of cherry here, with dark berry compote loaded with brisk acidity and minerality.
Alex Foillard
Côte de Brouilly
If you are not familiar with Beaujolais’ acclaimed Club de Cinq—the ‘Gang of Five,’ you should be: They are credited with re-introducing sustainable, biodynamic viticulture to the region, eschewing the use of pesticides at a time when they were deemed invaluable to successful grape growing. Influenced by the writings of Jules Chavet, a Beaujolais negociant (who was less concerned with health risks and more that the application of synthetics upsets the natural balance of the terroir), the gang included Joseph Chamonard, Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thèvenet, Guy Breton, and Jean Foillard (and sometimes Yvon Métras).
Alex Foillard is the son of Jean. Bolstered by this early exposure to the world of wine—specifically to the principles of sustainable farming and low-intervention—the younger Foillard studied agriculture at the Lycée Agricole in Montpellier, then earned a degree in viticulture and enology in Beaune while simultaneously interning at a well-respected domain in Nuits-Saint-Georges, in Australia and yet another with a producer in Japan.
Alex Foillard
At 24, Alex purchased a few acres in Brouilly and Côte-de-Brouilly, successfully diversifying the Foillard cellars, which until then had been pure Morgon with a bit of Fleurie. Although these new vineyards were not certified organic, Alex immediately began working them according to organic principles, 2016 marking his first harvest.
He says, “I like to think that my father’s soul is best reflected in these solo cuvées: I seek to make wines with seductive aromatic components, silky textures. This is achieved through whole-cluster fermentation with natural yeasts, no fining or filtration, and no additives of any kind save for a minute sulfur dose at bottling.”
7 Alex Foillard, 2019 Côte-de-Brouilly ($45)
From vines between 30 and 60 years old grown on 30, 60 years grown on schist and granite and a light layer of sand. It shows brambly fruit, pomegranate and spice atop a crisp foundation with all the crunchy intensity of the Côte-de-Brouilly.
Brouilly: A Cru with a View
Nestled along slopes of a dormant volcano, Brouilly is the most southerly of the Beaujolais Crus. The proximity of the volcano has left the area saturated with rare blue diorite, a phenomenon that leaves the soil thin and stony—an ideal underbelly for deeply rooted, low yielding Gamay vines with an excellent concentration of flavor. The best vineyards of Brouilly are planted on the south-east-facing side where the vineyards are protected from winds from the nearby Beaujolais hills by Mont Brouilly itself, and are instead subject to early morning sunlight.
Rather than bluestone, Brouilly features granite as the main substratum. There are five limestone hills on the eastern side of the appellation, which on the whole (especially compared to Côte-de-Brouilly) is relatively flat, extending southward to the very end of the Crus and the beginning of the largest area devoted to Beaujolais-Villages.
Wine is too complicated for simple rules, but in general, the wines of Brouilly are less serious than those of its sister appellation on the mountain. Brouilly produces a lot of fun, light, fruity bistro wine meant for drinking young.
Four-Bottle Brouilly Sampler Pack for $134
Alex Foillard
Brouilly
1 Alex Foillard, 2019 Brouilly ($45)
From a three-acre plot of fifty-year-old vine, the wine envelops the silky curtain that is a hallmark of Foillard with plenty of sun-drenched Gamay liveliness and a sold mineral core.
Julien Duport
Brouilly
2 Julien Duport ‘Les Balloquets’, 2021 Brouilly ($29)
Les Balloquets is a small Gamay lieu-dit planted on a 45% slope of volcanic granite soil with amethyst and quartz and an eastern exposure. These vines are more than a century old. Duport relies on traditional Beaujolais winemaking, semi-carbonic and 15-18 days of maceration, then 18 months aging in neutral barrels. Amazing extraction and inky depth are hallmarks of these ancient vines; the wine shows dark spicy plum notes and beautifully mature tannins.
Domaine Romain Jambon
Cru Brouilly
‘Jambon’ means ham, and his friends call him ‘Slice,’ but beyond that, it’s all about the wine. His seventeen vineyard acres sits on an invisible line between Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly, but a stint in New Zealand as a winemaker gave him valuable experience, but convinced him to produce Beaujolais using Burgundian methodology.
Romain Jambon, Domaine Romain Jambon
“I de-stem in their fashion and till the soils to push the roots deeper,” he says. “Gamay is an easy varietal to cultivate; it can be made into fresh, new wines or make great wines for cellaring like Pinot Noir.”
Since his original purchase Romain has added another six acres previously belonging to his mother, including a small plot of Beaujolais-Villages. He continues to limit the use of weed killers throughout his terroirs, which are predominantly sandy loam covering a shallow bedrock of diorite and granite with pebbles, sand, clay and silt.
3 Domaine Romain Jambon (Vin des Potes), 2022 Brouilly – Pierreux ($32)
Le Vin des Potes means ‘the wine of mates,’ and is a collaboration between best friends Yoan Tavares and Basile Passe who work hand-in-hand with various winemakers to create blends with their own signature. This is one such collaboration with Romain Jambon. 100% Gamay from 60-year old vines and semi-carbonic maceration showing sour cherry, oolong tea, violet and white pepper.
Pierre-Marie Chermette
Cru Brouilly
When a winemaker tries to bottle something for everyone, he/she is not always successful. The father, daughter and son team of Martine, Pierre-Marie and Jean-Etienne Chermette of Domaine du Vissoux are the exception to prove the rule, producing high quality white, red and Beaujolais rosé from crus such as Brouilly, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, Saint-Amour, Crémants de Bourgogne as well as hand crafted fruit liqueurs, cassis and vine peach with ginger.
Jean-Étienne, Pierre-Marie and Martine Chermette
In 2002, Martine and Pierre-Marie Chermette acquired the La Rochelle plot in Moulin-à-Vent, a high-altitude lieu-dit with pink granitic soils and ideal south/southeast exposure. From this beautifully situated vineyard, the family wrests wines that live up to their reputation as a beacon of Beaujolais excellence, able to broadcast the region’s terroirs with authority: Old vines, diligent but traditional vinification and élevage in foudre are the rudiments of their approach.
4 Pierre-Marie Chermette Vissoux, 2020 Brouilly – Pierreux ($30)
A textbook-perfect Brouilly from south-facing vines planted on granite scree. The lieu-dit name ‘Pierreux’ comes from the French word for stones, illustrating the make-up of the soil. The wine undergoes traditional Beaujolais processing, half-carbonic maceration with two pump-overs per day; 10 to 12 days of maceration in concrete tanks follow with no chaptalization, natural yeasting and bottling using a minimum of sulfur. The wine is crisp, fruit-forward and juicy with expressive aromas of ripe raspberries and wild strawberry, savory spice and zesty acidity.
Notebook …
Beaujolais’s Gamay: Complex and Thoughtful Wines with Instant Appeal.
‘The pleasure of now’ seems to be a 21st century operative, and when lighting delivery is the mandatory expectation, Gamay’s ability to deliver the goods within a year or so of bottling have it well-positioned to fill this need. Long appreciated for its hedonistic burst of fresh, grapey quaffability, Gamay’s more brooding face was kept as a guarded secret by the Cru cult, who often turned their noses up at plebian versions and relished in the meatier versions grown in hallowed vineyards.
But these noses should have been placed in the glass. Much of Beaujolais’ signature aromatics come from carbonic maceration, a method embraced (at least in part) by most Beaujolaisien winemakers in all appellations. In this style, intact grape bunches ferment inside their own skins with carbon dioxide used as a catalyst, either introduced or occurring naturally as a byproduct of fermentation. Once the alcohol reaches 2%, the grapes burst and release their juice naturally, whereupon a normal yeast fermentation finishes the job.
Even wines only partially fermented via carbonic maceration show bright fruit with aromas that bounce from the glass. A hybridization of these two faces of Gamay, which some call ‘street carbo,’ has as many varieties as there are experimentative winemakers. The complexity in the top-shelf Beaujolais are the result of superior fruit and—especially among practitioners of ‘Burgundy-style’ Beaujolais—from the oak-aging that is becoming more common.
Either way, the 21st century movement in Beaujolais is a step away from wines that could, even in the most cynical interpretation, be called ‘standardized.’
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Posted on 2025.05.15 in Cote de Brouilly, Chenas, Côte-de-Brouilly, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
Half a Dozen Rosés: ($189) In Spite of a Challenging 2024 Growing Season in the Centre-Loire, These Top Sancerre Producers Craft Wines with Remarkable Acidity and Elegance—While Keeping Alcohol Levels in Check. + ‘Amour’ By the Dozen ($89)
Join us for Saturday Sips: Cidre & Rosés
There’s no rest for the weary, but if Mom is enjoying a respite on Mothers’ Day weekend, include a stop at Elie’s where, on Saturday, May 10, we will be pouring samples from the below selection of Loire Valley rosés, emphasizing the bright and refreshing pinks of Sancerre. Come as you are during our business hours.
Elie
Feel free to send Mom her customary dozen roses on Mothers’ Day, but consider a half dozen Sancerre rosés as a delightful lagniappe. This week we’ll think pink with six rosé offerings from some top producers in Sancerre, mostly built upon Pinot Noir, where this complex and energized style encapsulates the promise of the summer to come. These are textbook example of finely wrought Sancerre rosés that will, like Mom, age effortlessly for years.
The Rosé Geography of France: Inland & Oceanic Terroirs vs. the Sunlit Mediterranean
Tastes in wine run hot and cold and so do the climates that produce them. Nearly every commercial vine on earth is grown between 30° – 50° latitude (both north and south), but that range offers an almost endless array of rainfall patterns, cloud covers and wind configurations and such a wide spectrum of environments and that generalization seems pointless.
And yet, anyone qualified to blind taste with authority should be able to tell you very quickly whether the wine comes from cool or warm region simply by gauging the character of the fruit.
In cool climates, where budding occurs late and frosts arrive early, even grapes harvested at optimal ripeness tend to produce lighter, more acidic wines with flavor profiles that lean toward savory herbs and acidic fruits like cranberries and tart cherries. In fact, you’ll find these types of descriptors used for wines made from any number of varieties that have adapted to cooler climates. In contrast, warm weather and extended growing seasons in the world’s southerly vineyards results in jammier, richer wines with less acidity and darker fruit flavors (blackberry and plum), often underscored with exotic aromatics like coffee and chocolate.
Nowhere is this climate divide more obvious than in France, and no style of wine demonstrates it better than French rosé, a wine with many guises. A versatile food wine and a cherished part of French viticulture, crisp, cheerful rosé is produced both in France’s frosty north and cool Continental interior and sultry Mediterranean south with characteristically different, yet equally spectacular results.
A Winegrower’s Vintage: 2024 & 2023 in Centre-Loire are Back-to-Back Years of ‘Unprecedented Climatic Conditions.’
For winemakers, the rain gods are fickle in the best of decades, but in the Loire, the back-to-back vintages of 2023 and 2024 have sorely tested any sense of climatic deism. 2023 could not decide between torrential rain and prolonged heatwaves—conditions under which mildew and acid rot thrive. Although vineyards dodged the frost bullet and bud break sported a large volume of potential grapes, a wet June kicked off the mildew pressure and it was essential for growers to spray against it regularly and at exactly the right moment. Jérôme Billard, winemaker at Domaine de la Noblaie, said, “It is easy to see who was successful at containing the mildew and who wasn’t. There are parcels where there are virtually no leaves left, making it very difficult for the grapes to ripen properly.”
Rather than slinking back with apologies, 2024 decided to double-down on the onslaught by delivering unprecedented levels of precipitation along with hail, frost and rot. Rainfall—twice the annual average—broke records. Adding insult to inundation, temperatures were generally below normal, delaying ripening until mid-September and pushing the harvest back.
Both vintages were dependent on tenacity and commitment in the vineyard. According to the promotional body Centre-Loire Wines, “The quality of these wines relied heavily on the vigilance and adaptability of growers. With support from SICAVAC, the Centre-Loire winegrowers showcased their expertise and determination, turning a year of climatic adversity into a vintage that reflects their skill-sets.”
And yet, despite these natural challenges, many growers remain happy with the vibrant levels of acidity in their wines, although alcohol levels are noticeably lower compared to recent vintages.
Domaine Dominique et Janine Crochet
The steeps slopes of Bué are also home to winemakers Teddy and Cyprien Crochet, who took over from their father Dominique after his untimely passing. Although Teddy spent time as a rugby player, he remains true to his roots, now five generations deep. Cyprien raves about the holdings in Chêne Marchand, Grand Chemarin, Champ Chêne and the steepest vineyards in the La Côte de Bué: “We like to think that the Crochet name is synonymous with the town of Bué,” Cyprien says, “… one of the three greatest villages in Sancerre. We’re equally proud to be producing Sancerre in a winery our father started in a garage—we are true garagistes making ‘vins de garage.’”
Teddy and Cyprien Crochet, Domaine Dominique et Janine Crochet
Established in 1992, Dominique and Janine began with a handful of perfectly situated hillside acres. Today, the domain extends to nearly forty acres hosting more than forty tiny parcels. Grapes are hand-harvested—a Bué necessity, given the steep hillsides—and indigenous yeast is preferred, especially for the reds, which are treated to light clay filtration before bottling.
1 Domaine Dominique et Janine Crochet, 2024 Sancerre Rosé ($29)
Drawn from the high elevations of the Crochet’s Pinot Noir vines in the village of Bué, where conditions are optimal for slow ripening and the preservation of natural acidity, assuring energy and precision. The wine shows notes of cherry and wild strawberry, but with a stoney backbone and orange zest on the finish.
Domaine Pierre Morin
Gérard Morin took over the family’s vineyards about twenty years ago and, while making some of the most striking wines in Sancerre, he prepared his son Pierre to run the show. Pierre, who once worked the vineyards of Adelaide Hills, saw little in Australia worth emulating in Sancerre. He now helms the estate with an eye toward maintaining a house style typical of Bué (about a mile and a half from the village of Sancerre): rich, aromatic whites and some particularly deep reds that are best matched, according to Pierre, to “an andouillette cooked in the vineyard on vine prunings, ideally for breakfast.”
Gérard Morin, Domaine Pierre Morin
The Morin’s vines are planted on a steep hard-Calcaire amphitheater surrounding the commune of Bué and consist of 17 acres of Sauvignon Blanc and five of Pinot Noir. Yields are held low through spring de-budding (one of Pierre’s few, but significant changes) and all harvesting is done by hand. Fermentation is done by parcel in an air-conditioned chai, in enameled steel vats, with the finished wines left alone on their lees for as long as possible.
2 Domaine Pierre Morin, 2024 Sancerre – Bué ‘Les Rimbardes’ Rosé ($31)
Les Rimbardes is situated to the east of Bué, nearly to the border of Sancerre. Soils here are heavy with clay, giving the wines more heft. This fruit-forward rosé offers grapefruit, strawberry, Meyer lemon, and tangerine zest aromas intertwined with rhubarb, lemon and hints of caramel.
Pascal & Nicolas Reverdy
The oyster-shell limestone of Sancerre, called Kimmeridgian, forms the base soil beneath the tiny hamlet of Maimbray, located in a valley surrounded by chalk hills of Chavignol and Verdigny. Across 43 acres of this vital terroir, Pascal Reverdy and his wife Nathalie (alongside Nicolas’s widow Sophie) combine tradition with trajectory: Now, sons Victorien and Benjamin shore up the team. Having completed his DNO at Dijon, with stints at Armand Rousseau (Gevrey-Chambertin), Châteaux Léoville Las Cases (St Julien Beychevelle) and Christine Vernay (Condrieu), Victorien returned first in 2019. Benjamin reappeared in the summer 2023, having cut his teeth at Domaine de la Romanée Conti.
Victorien and Benjamin Reverdy, Pascal & Nicolas Reverdy
Pascal, who founded the winery in 1993, explains the family’s mandate: “We are about 70% planted with Sauvignon Blanc and 30% with Pinot Noir. Hard pruning keeps yields low, with vineyard being grassed through, and lutte raisonnée being practiced. Harvesting is by hand and we have built a reputation across white, red and rosé Sancerres, with no oak aging, as well as three special cuvées (Les Anges Lots, La Grande Rue and A Nicolas) which are barrel aged.”
3 Pascal & Nicolas Reverdy ‘Terre de Maimbray’, 2024 Reverdy Sancerre Rosé ($31)
The ‘Terre’ in the name is ‘blanche’—the ‘white earth’ of Sancerre’s classic terroir. From three acres of 30-year-old Pinot Noir grown in characteristic clay-limestone, direct-pressed and vinified in demi-muids (10%) and stainless-steel tanks (90%), the wine shows a bouquet of ripe strawberries and red grapefruit underpinned by earthy tones that still allows bright acidity to sparkle through.
Domaine de Sacy
In keeping with the theme of these selections—small production, family-owned hamlet wines—miniscule Sacy nestles near Crézancy and Bué; Karine Millet has taken over the family domain. Karine practices polyculture, the historical practice in Sancerre, where cow manure from the farm is used throughout the vineyards and sustainable viticulture, without herbicide or pesticide, is the rule of the day. Her vines average 30 years old, with some approaching half a century.
Karine Millet, Domaine de Sacy
“Our soil is all ‘Terres Blanches,'” Karine says. “This is a late-ripening terroir made of thick clay layers intertwined with flat, white limestone. It’s rich in fossils that have the particularity of whitening while drying in the sun. Terres Blanches terroir gives a strong aromatic concentration, tension and aging potential to the wines as well as a pronounced mineral character.”
4 Domaine de Sacy, 2024 Sancerre Rosé ($27)
100% Pinot Noir, fermented and aged in stainless steel. The salmon-colored wine shows enticing aromas of wild strawberries and the classic mineral backbone that typifies the wines of Sancerre.
Domaine Claude Riffault
Le Métronome*
*From ‘Our 25 Domaines of the Year,’ Guides des Vins 2020, Bettane+Desseauve:
“When you think of Sancerre, you absolutely have to mention Stéphane Riffault. Measure, attention and reflection forge high-flying and stylish cuvées; each reflecting the personality of its terroir. Everything here exudes excellence.”
When Stéphane Riffault took over Domaine Claude Riffault from his father Claude, he brought with him a tool kit earned in a number of contrasting appellations, having studied and trained with Olivier Leflaive in Burgundy and at Château Angélus in Bordeaux. This broader view informed the core, hands-on education he received from his father at the domain. Among the rather ‘un-Sancerre-like’ methods he brought to the estate was hand-harvesting and extensive sorting before the crush; Stéphane’s wife Benedicte leads the harvest team while Stéphane manages the sorting and press during harvest.
Meanwhile, among the conclusions at which he arrived on his own is that sustainability is key to the future. As such, all 33 of his vineyard acres are organic (Ecocert, 2016) and biodynamic (Biodyvin, 2021).
Stéphane Riffault, Domaine Claude Riffault
All good winemakers seem to be equal parts dirt-farmer and metaphysical philosopher, and Stéphane is no exception: “Being a winegrower and winemaker demands commitment, risk and continual self-questioning,” he maintains. “You have to know how to adapt in order to stay dynamic. Improvement requires perpetual movement, and what drives me is the creation of wines of texture; wines that are singular and true to themselves.”
Although most of the Riffault’s holdings are planted on the soft limestone soil called ‘Terres Blanches’, he farms a handful of parcels on caillottes and silex; thus, he has developed a keen understanding of the qualities that each unique terroir brings to an individual wine. He employs oak moderately to add length to his already-precise, site-expressive and highly delineated bottlings.
5 Domaine Claude Riffault, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($40)
La Noue is a six-acre of Pinot Noir grown on clay limestone and marl. Divided into seven plots and ranging in age from 10 to 60 years old it is the source for both Riffault’s Noue Rouge and his rosé. In particular, the rosé is a combination of juice bled off the Sancerre Rouge after a 6-12 hour maceration combined with direct press Pinot Noir. Cherry and citrus dominate the nose, while ripe strawberry notes appear on the palate.
Domaine Thomas-Labaille
Claude Thomas continued to work old vines in Monts Damnés—Sancerre’s greatest vineyard site—until well into his seventies, just as he maintained his standards in the cellar with élevage in old foudres and unfiltered bottlings. He clung to traditions in the hope that his daughter and son-in-law would ultimately take the reins.
This finally happened when Jean-Paul Labaille quit his civil servant job and became a full-time vigneron—although for the previous ten vintages, he had taken his vacation during the harvest to be the assistant winemaker to Claude Thomas. Few changes have happened under the new guard, and the 27 acres of vineyards remain among the best in Chavignol, with a large proportion of old vines. The oldest barrels have been re-placed by newer, mostly second-hand barrels that are 2 to 3 years old. The goal at Thomas-Labaille has always been to avoid any oaky character, but to let the wine breathe as it evolves slowly on its lees.
Jean-Paul Labaille, Domaine Thomas-Labaille
Work in the vineyards still follows Claude Thomas’ time-honored techniques, though through necessity as much as through respect: Monts Damnés is too steep a slope to ever consider machine harvesting—now the norm in the appellation—but the site is so spectacular that it’s worth the trouble. Many of the vines are over 80 years old; a genuine rarity in Sancerre. Given such spectacular raw material it’s no wonder that the resulting wine remains sensational: Rich, fat, round, with layered aromas, and marathon finishes. These are not a typical bistro Sancerres, but graceful wines meant for aging.
6 Domaine Thomas-Labaille ‘Cuvée L’Authentique’, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($31)
100% Pinot Noir from sustainably farmed vines grown on the famous limestone soils of Chavignol. Hand harvested and direct pressed natural-yeast fermentation and tank aging; the wine display ‘soil transparency’ with its limestone minerality alongside gooseberry, lime, fresh-cut grass and orange peel.
Domaine Jean Vacheron
Biodynamics, low yields and Burgundian techniques have defined the Vacheron road map since cousins Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron took over the estate. Having inherited some of the most coveted parcels in Sancerre, the cousins are vinifying parcels by terroir and treating Pinot Noir not as an afterthought, but a focus.
“Vacheron is primarily a ‘silex’ producer,” says Jean-Laurent. “ Silex flint is found primarily in the eastern part of the appellation (across the river in Pouilly Fumé) and almost all our holdings are on this hard minerally soil type. Flint produces vertical, long-aging Sancerre bottlings and our chief aim is to let this shine.”
Jean-Dominique & Jean-Laurent Vacheron, Domaine Vacheron (Hejvin)
The Vacheron cousins current farm 84 acres of Sauvignon Blanc and 27 acres of Pinot Noir. Having begun with vines in the incomparable Les Romains vineyard, they have begun acquiring vines in the most coveted lieux-dits in the appellation, including Guigne Chèvre, En Grands Champs, Paradis, and Chambrates.
Natural winemaking comes naturally, according to Jean-Dominique: “We are certified in both organic and biodynamic practices. No synthetic materials whatsoever are used in the vineyards; and we make our own organic compost. Wines are aged either in large oak cask or French oak barrels, depending on the vintage, and we bottle unfiltered according to the lunar cycle.”
Domaine Jean Vacheron, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($57)
This direct-pressing of Pinot Noir grapes from vines between 30 and 50 years old planted on flint, clay and limestone soils displays the essence of elegant green citrus, sweet pink rose, passion fruit and fresh green herbs.
Domaine Roger & Christophe Moreux
Established in 1895, with winegrower roots extending back to the 16th century, work in the Moreaux’s 22 acres has been handed down across many generations. Today, following the retirement of his father Roger, responsibility rests with Christophe Moreaux.
Located in the tiny hamlet of Chavignol (population 200) along the Upper Loire River where they are renowned equally for their wine and their cheese—Crottin de Chavignol has its own appellation. Wine, however, is the passion of Christophe, who says, “We believe we are in possession of some of Sancerre’s greatest terroirs, the vineyards of Les Monts Damnés and Les Bouffants.”
Christophe Moreaux, Domaine Roger & Christophe Moreux
Moreaux production is a scant 65,000 bottles per year, with about one quarter of it made from Pinot Noir, both red and rosé; it is fermented in stainless steel and aged for six to eight months before release.
Domaine Roger & Christophe Moreux ‘Cuvée des Lys’, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($27)
Sourced from 40-year-old Pinot Noir vines grown on clay and limestone soils in the village of Chavignol. Made by the direct press method, fermentation and aging takes place in stainless steel to produce a crisp, fruit driven rosé filled with heady aromas of apricots, cherries, currants, and wild strawberries supported by vibrant acidity.
Domaine Philippe Gilbert
Having felt the pull of the soil, Phillipe Gilbert left his occupation as a successful playwright to take over the family estate in the hamlet of Faucards in the midst of Menetou-Salon. The vineyards are scattered throughout the heart of the appellation in prime sectors of the villages of Menetou-Salon, Vignoux, Parassy and Morogues where the soil is a classic mix of clay and limestone sitting on the famous Kimmeridgian basin.
Philippe Gilbert, Domaine Philippe Gilbert
With the assistance of his colleague, Jean-Philippe Louis, Philippe Gilbert has plunged headlong into the system of biodynamic viticulture and the domain is now certified as an organic producer.
Domaine Philippe Gilbert, 2023 Menetou-Salon Rosé ($33)
Produced from 100% Pinot Noir, this standout rosé is pressed directly and fermented spontaneously—a rare practice for the category, as most growers want to ensure market-demanded consistency. It spends six months in stainless steel tanks where it natural malolactic fermentation and develops an ethereal nose of raspberries and pink grapefruit behind the crunch of minerality and sizzling acidity.
The Anjou Region: Meanwhile, Down River.
Down the river-road from Sancerre sits Anjou, which (as its name may or may not imply) surrounds the French city of Angers. Although generic Anjou wines are not particularly well-known or prestigious, there are several noteworthy subregional AOPs like Saumur (known for fragrant Cabernet Franc), the crisp Chenin of Savennières and the sweet white nectars of Côteaux-du-Layon.
The appellation covers red, white and sparkling wines, but not still rosés. For the pinks, generally made from Gamay or Cabernet, there are separate appellation; Rosé-de-Loire and Cabernet d’Anjou, a medium-sweet rosé a blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Château Soucherie
The Soucherie château itself is an architectural gem, an 18th century castle with an outstanding view of the Layon valley. 20 minutes south of Angers in the heart of the Loire and surrounded by the villages of Rochefort-sur-Loire, Beaulieu-sur-Layon and Saint Lambert du Lattay, the 70 acres of south-facing vineyards are planted on limestone, clay and schist.
Vianney de Tastes, Château Soucherie
Owner Roger Beguinot is assisted by general manager, Vianney de Tastes, who sings the praises of organic ‘agriculture integrée,’ practiced through the domain’s single-vineyard sites, including the 70-year-old vines in Chaume: “All the work of the vineyards is done manually,” he says, “from stripping to budding, from tying to harvesting. For our sweet wines, the grapes are picked selectively, only 100% botrytis and chaptalized. Our white wines are vinified and aged in oak barrels where nothing is left to chance—the origin of the wood (Allier, Tronçais forest, Nièvre, etc.), and the expertise of the cooper is chosen in accordance with the type of wine and the nature of the soil.”
RECENT ARRIVAL
‘Amour’ By the Dozen ($89)
Cidre with a heart of gold, produced in the Cotentin Peninsula using artisanal techniques perfected by Maison Hérout since 1946—show the love by picking up a case, 12 of 330 ml bottles.
This is a good time for a shout out to our cidre importer Jon-David Headrick, whose rural Tennessee roots give him a particularly keen palate for apple cider while his many years in France have taught him how to uncork the best.
Maison Hérout ‘Amour’, IGP Cidre de Normandie – 4.5% abv – (330 ml)
This is the only non-AOP cidre made by Hérout; it includes fruit that originates just outside the appellation and is exclusively bottled in 330 ml bottles. The juice is aged in a tank and bottled after about four months. Organic and slightly off-dry with the second fermentation occurring in the bottle; the cidre has an appealing low alcohol content. It is redolent of ripe apples in pastry, with hints of orange citrus, forest floor, bitter coffee bean and apricot on the finish.
Marie-Agnès Hérout
Maison Hérout
The Contenin Peninsula, part of the staging area for Operation Overlord (the codename of the Invasion of Normandy) pokes its nose far into the English Channel, and was chosen as a landing site for this very reason. Maison Hérout, known for producing some of the driest and most complex ciders made anywhere, has seen many such incursions—the Hérout family tree goes back to the Vikings, who settled in this area around the ninth and tenth centuries. In fact, many Cotentin village names in the still flaunt Norse roots, like the beautiful Briquebec and Quettetot.
Marie-Agnès Hérout, Maison Hérout
The Hérout estate is located near the town of Auvers, where apples thrive in a lush oceanic climate. The Hérout family began producing cider in the 1940s; today, Marie-Agnès Hérout has taken over the farm and remains true to her heritage by producing some of the finest ciders available from this region. After picking, the apples are grated, macerated, and then pressed with the help of a rack press dating back to 1920, whereupon the juice is left to ferment for four to seven months, often in used Calvados barrels.
Marie-Agnès also continues the family tradition of planting apple trees for future generations and in 2000, began a campaign with the Syndicat de Promotion du Cidre du Cotentin to earn the region’s certification for Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée Cotentin status. In May of 2016, after 16 years of hard work and perseverance, the quest succeeded.
Notebook …
Cidre in Normandy: The Apple of the Region’s Eye!
Normandy, which most of us associate with the D-Day invasion of 1944, gets a failing grade in being French: They tend to love Americans. They also love apples, and harvest nearly half a million a year, many (but not all) destined to be transformed into Norman Cidre. Throughout the regions of Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and Seine-Maritime, cidre is king, although the menu also includes world-class apple juice, pectin jelly and phenomenal apple-based pastries. In the 9th century, Charlemagne ordered more apple trees to be planted in the region, which is too far north and too sunshine-challenged for grape cultivation.
The Norman apple harvest begins in mid-September, when ripe fruit begins to fall from trees naturally. More than 200 varieties of apples are legally permitted; the most common is the Frequin Rouge, followed by distinctive Michelin and Muscadet de Dieppe.
Styles: French Cidre Moves Beyond the Apple.
Keeving is Believing: Cidre relies on bittersweet and bittersharp apples rich in pectins and tannins and low in acid. As such, production tends to be a farmhouse undertaking and the art of cidre-making involves a filtering process known as keeving; keeving allows the natural pectin of the apples turn to a jelly-like consistency in cold temperatures over a week, where it rises to the top of the fermentation vessel as the heavy solids filter to the bottom of the tank and the jelly at the top. The remaining juice in the middle of the tank is then slowly fermented at cold temperatures with small quantities of yeast for 3-6 months.
The carbonation may be the result of a Champagne-like process or the artificial introduction of carbon dioxide at bottling.
Cidre de Normandie IGP was formalized in the year 2000; the cider must be made from apples, or a combination of apples and pears, each with its own profile and identity, giving cidre the same sort of unique varietal personality as wine has based on grapes.
Sweetness levels vary from dry to sweet (doux), and color from pale yellow to dark orange or rosé. There are also various technical specifications, including those regarding the types of apple or pear used. Tannin and acidity levels are also regulated. Many regulations vary depending on the category of fruit used, and the style of cider. Sweet ciders must have a minimum of 3.0 percent abv, while drier styles must reach 5.0 percent abv, or 5.5 percent for Cidre Bouché.
And then there is poiré, made from pears only; it differs from generic pear cider in that it’s made from designated varieties grown in Normandy. Pears are thought to have been grown here even before apple trees were cultivated.
Despite Its Ties to Fall, Hard Cidre Screams Summertime Sipper.
Low in octane, effervescent, quaffable and refreshing, cidre offers a great alternative to beer for your outdoor summer tipple. At its most basic, it is fermented apple juice—you can make it yourself with a gallon from the orchard and a pinch of baker’s yeast. But like wine, it appears in multiple guises—tart, sweet, bitter, herbaceous, full of fireworks sparkles like a Roman candle or gently effervescent. The idea that cidre is one dimensional is not borne of experience, but of one-dimensional palates.
A plus for cidre’s place on the summertime table is its food-friendly versatility. Cidre’s acidity and tannin makes it the ideal foil for the grill or smoker—ribs, obviously (pork and apples have an innate affinity)—but virtually any sizzling, fatty cut of flesh will be complimented, and also roasted vegetables—the rootier the better. Cheese is another classic matchup for cidre, and Normandy is as known for its fromage as it is for its apples.
Once a standby in American taverns, the end of Prohibition in 1933 put a permanent dent in the American hard cider industry. Orchards were cut down and replaced by new varieties of sweet, table apples, and it was not until the 1990s that artisan cider makers began to rediscover their red, white and blue heritage.
Of course, France’s flag is also red, white and blue, and diverse cidres offered in this week’s package reflect the diversity from the most heralded ‘cidre centre’ in France; Normandy.
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Posted on 2025.05.14 in Cidre, Sancerre, Touraine, Rosé de Loire, Anjou, Menetou-Salon, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire | Read more...
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