Château Thivin
by Jane Augustine
The first time I had lunch with the lovely Geoffray family, overlooking the Côte de Brouilly from their canopied terrace on Mont Brouilly, they served a range of Lyonnaise “salads” and other nose-to-tail specialties. Back then I was still developing a strong enough stomach to survive living in Burgundy, but I dove in to this generous meal with curiosity and a touch of naiveté: I decorated my plate with salade de museau (thinly sliced pig snout), fromage de tête (a cold, gelatinous terrine), and a medallion of andouillette (tripe sausage). I will be honest. The setting was quaint, but the flavors were not! I’ve never been so grateful to have a chilled glass of delicious, cleansing, fruity Brouilly within reach—the wine is quaffable for a reason. Gamay eagerly complements the coarse fare of the region. But the beauty of Château Thivin’s Beaujolais is that they’re versatile, a match for the boldest of flavors but also for the more subtle. How do they manage?
The Geoffrays treat all of their parcels like premiers crus, interested in the specificity of each. Every wine speaks of a different-colored stone found in its vineyard: pink granite in Brouilly, a blue and veiny diorite in Côte de Brouilly, and yellow limestone in their Beaujolais blanc. Organic viticulture and biodiversity are key elements to keeping their vineyards healthy. Sheep roam about, while birds nest in the vines. In the cellar, they privilege whole-cluster, low-intervention methods during fermentation to capture pure fruit aromas and flavors.
Readers of our newsletter already know about the mythical experience of lunch at Château Thivin. To me, it is memorable not because I have a lust for daring butcher’s salads, trotters, and snouts, but because the meal is rooted in tradition, which is how every aspect of a visit to Château Thivin feels.
2022 Beaujolais Blanc “Clos de Rochebonne”
France | Beaujolais
Thivin’s Beaujolais blanc comes from a parcel about thirty minutes south of their property in Odenas, where the soil has an abundance of pierre dorée, a golden limestone that reflects a toasty hue off the local homes that are built from it. Radiant at magic hour, the village and surrounding cliffs glow, just like the wine that Thivin draws from this stony outpost. Rochebonne offers Chardonnay fruit that’s both racy and sun-kissed. Different from the whites of neighboring Mâcon, this blanc is firm but also a touch fleshy.
2022 Brouilly “Reverdon”
France | Beaujolais
As the largest cru in Beaujolais, Brouilly is home to a range of soil types depending on parcel location. Reverdon, which faces Mont Brouilly, is a particularly sandy vineyard with solid pink granite to anchor its vines—a dream for older roots to dig deep. This bottling is classic Brouilly, balanced and old-school, and showcases the beauty of Gamay grown in its southernmost cru, on a south-facing slope.
2022 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
The typicity of the Côte de Brouilly shines in this peppery, spicy, and angular cuvée from Thivin. Our signature bottling blends a selection from seven parcels, vinifed separately, and bottled especially to exemplify the complexity of this cru. Not your basic Beaujolais, it showcases pedigreed and assertive fruit that is strikingly substantial for Gamay, with a finty core from the famous pierre bleu soils. It delivers pleasure and class in stride.
2022 Côte de Brouilly “Cuvée Zaccharie”
France | Beaujolais
The most special of the family’s Côte de Brouilly bottlings, this cuvée is made from ancient vines (some up to one hundred years old) from their most prized parcels, La Chapelle and Godefroy. Raised in barrel as their ancestor Zaccharie Geoffray would have done, it then undergoes a further barrel selection before blending. Symbolically, it’s raised in the oldest part of the cellar: the dungeon-like underbelly of the château that’s draped in cobwebs and where unlabeled bottles of mysterious vintages live quietly, undisturbed. This is a true homage cuvée, with an old-fashioned soul and vibrant energy.