2015 Puligny-Montrachet “Les Chalumaux”Comtesse de Chérisey
France | Burgundy
$120
Producers
Only 2% of Beaujolais production is rosé. That makes the Thivin Rosé one of the world’s rarest $21.00 bottles of wine. Separate from this trivial fact, Thivin makes one damn enjoyable rosé. Sourced from the pink granite terroir of Brouilly, this rosé is simply delicious, with good grip and notes of summery red berries.
—Clark Z. Terry
Wine Type: | Rosé |
Vintage: | 2019 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Gamay Noir à jus blanc |
Appellation: | Beaujolais |
Country: | France |
Region: | Beaujolais |
Producer: | Château Thivin |
Winemaker: | Claude Geoffray |
Vineyard: | 50 years old, 1 ha |
Soil: | Pink granite and sand |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 12.5% |
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais | Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais | Brouilly
Quentin Harel France | Beaujolais | Morgon
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Jean-Paul & Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais | Régnié
Quentin Harel France | Beaujolais | Beaujolais Villages
It is no surprise that Château Thivin is the benchmark domaine of the Côte de Brouilly; everything about it is exceptional. Built in the fifteenth century on an ancient volcano which juts out steeply into the valley below, Thivin is the oldest estate on Mont Brouilly, In 1976, Richard Olney took Kermit to visit on their first wine trip together. It was Olney’s top recommendation in the whole of the Beaujolais region. The current generation of the Geoffray family continues their tradition. Today their grandnephew Claude, his wife Evelyne, and their son Claude-Edouard continue the tradition as staunch and proud defenders of the terroir of the Côte de Brouilly.
After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.
The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.
Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.
Domaine Robert-Denogent France | Beaujolais | Beaujolais Villages
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Quentin Harel France | Beaujolais | Beaujolais
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Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais | Juliénas
Quentin Harel France | Beaujolais | Beaujolais Villages
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais | Côte de Brouilly
Jean-Paul & Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais | Régnié
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais | Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais | Brouilly
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch
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