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Everyday Excellence
Everyday Excellence
by Dustin Soiseth by Dustin Soiseth
Cru Beaujolais Sampler
Cru Beaujolais Sampler

Harvest at Château Thivin

Petit Max Breton

Bernard Diochon

Nicole Chanrion

Valentin Montanet of La Soeur Cadette
France | Beaujolais
Normally $175.00 SPECIAL SAMPLER PRICE $140.00 (a 20% discount) |
This item does not take further discounts
I love Beaujolais for the following reasons: balance, versatility, and value. I call these qualities the Three Pillars of Beaujolais. Wines from this region can be exuberantly fruity, but in the best examples, the fruitiness is always complemented by an equal measure of earthiness and acidity, which, for me, maintains balance. Fruity without being cloying, substantial without being heavy, and above all, refreshing. Guy Breton’s elegant Régnié has this balance, as does the charming Juliénas from Valentin Montanet at La Soeur Cadette. It’s a beautiful thing.
Thanks to its light to medium body, Beaujolais is a versatile partner with all kinds of different cuisines. This is handy because, let’s face it, sometimes you want wine with dinner but dinner wasn’t necessarily chosen with wine in mind. I’ve paired Nicole Chanrion’s classic Côte-de-Brouilly will all manner of things—sushi, Thai, carnitas tacos— and it comes through every time. I switch to the Thévenet Morgon if the food’s a bit richer. A good Beaujolais, chilled down just a little, will serve you well in many situations.
Lastly, the value of Beaujolais is hard to beat. Jean-Paul Thévenet and Guy Breton are legends in the region, yet their wines still sell for under forty bucks. Diochon’s Moulin-à-Vent and Château Thivin’s Brouilly—benchmarks for their respective appellations—go for even less. And they’re delicious to boot! Wines of comparable stature from Burgundy or Bordeaux would easily cost twice as much—and would not pair nearly as well with tacos.
2017 Régnié • Guy Breton $32.00
2017 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes” • Bernard Diochon $26.00
2018 Morgon • Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet $37.00
2017 Côte-de-Brouilly • Nicole Chanrion $23.00
2018 Brouilly “Reverdon” • Château Thivin $26.00
2017 Juliénas • La Soeur Cadette $31.00

Harvest at Château Thivin

Petit Max Breton

Bernard Diochon

Nicole Chanrion

Valentin Montanet of La Soeur Cadette
A good Beaujolais, chilled down just a little, will serve you well in many situations.
Normally $175.00 SPECIAL SAMPLER PRICE $140.00 (a 20% discount) |
More from this Producer or Region

2023 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
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Leave it to Breton to take summer heat and turn it into a light summer breeze in a glass.

2024 Beaujolais “Le Beaujolais”
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“Le Beaujolais” is silky, perfumed, and incredibly fresh, exhibiting the pleasure factor we expect from every bottle to come out of the Lapierre cellars.

2023 Beaujolais
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May Adventures Club ~ Dupeuble’s rouge is thirst-quenching and tangy with loads of violet and réglisse.

2023 Beaujolais MAGNUM
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This Beaujolais offers the drinkability of the most effusive Morgons with the frankness of a chiseled Moulin-à-Vent.

2023 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
Brambly and mineral, this bottling exudes both the convivial charm of Gamay and the crunchy intensity of the Côte de Brouilly.

2022 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
A relatively new addition to Guy Breton’s Beaujolais lineup, this exuberant Côte de Brouilly is flat-out delicious.

2022 Fleurie
France | Beaujolais
An opulent, mouth-filling expression of granitic terroir, this bottling has the delicate floral nuances and fine-grained tannin that differentiates Fleurie from the other crus.

2021 Côte de Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
Alex Foillard fashions a Côte-de-Brouilly that strikes a deeper register, saturating the senses with tooth-staining fruit, gritty earth, and just a touch of the good funk.

2023 Brouilly “Reverdon”
France | Beaujolais
This bottling is classic Brouilly, balanced and old-school, and showcases the beauty of Gamay.

2023 Morgon
France | Beaujolais
Silky and perfumed, with no rough edges, this is dangerously swallowable.
About The Region
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
2021 Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge”
Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2021 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie
Jean Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2021 Côte de Brouilly
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2022 Régnié
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Chassignol”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Vin de France Blanc “Perle de Gamay”
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2021 Beaujolais Blanc “Terrain Rouge”
Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
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2021 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2023 Fleurie
Jean Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Beaujolais
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2022 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2021 Côte de Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2022 Régnié
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2023 Chénas “Chassignol”
Domaine Thillardon France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2023 Vin de France Blanc “Perle de Gamay”
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
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