Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2022 Chiroubles “Cuvée Léa”

Guy Breton
Discount Eligible $44.00
AT CART MAX

In 2017, with Guy Breton’s first bottling of Chiroubles, he introduced us to a new cru from the region among his already diverse and illustrious repertoire. With each passing year, his Chiroubles continues to stand out. The 2022 vintage is the most transparent I’ve seen, rosy and sheer, both peppery and bright on the palate. Named “Cuvée Léa” after his granddaughter, it hails from a higher-altitude parcel with seventy-year-old vines that are naturally low-yielding. Breton prefers long, cold macerations for his organic grapes, and the results are both stylish and genre-defining. In the natural wine world of “ethereal” Gamays, this one is flawless and buoyant, yet intensely perfumed.

Jane Augustine

Discount Eligible $44.00
AT CART MAX

Technical Information
Wine Type: red
Vintage: 2022
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: Gamay
Appellation: Chiroubles
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Producer: Guy Breton
Winemaker: Guy Breton
Vineyard: 60 years old, 1.2 ha
Soil: Granite
Farming: Organic (practicing)
Alcohol: 14.5%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Beaujolais

map of Beaujolais

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.

More from Beaujolais or France

Discount Eligible $69.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $46.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $21.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $29.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $28.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $42.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $39.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $20.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $42.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $56.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $37.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $68.00
AT CART MAX
Vintage illustration of men rolling barrels.

We only import wine we drink and enjoy ourselves, directly from the source.

Our wine tastes the same in your home as it did where it was bottled in Europe.

Like the long-term relationships we build with growers, we build long-term relationships with our clients. Have a question? Need wine advice? Just give us a call—510-524-1524.

Read more here

Discount Eligible $44.00
AT CART MAX