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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
A good Beaujolais, chilled down just a little, will serve you well in many situations.
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
2020 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.
2021 Juliénas
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With loads of fresh Gamay fruit, it flows over the palate with a juicy buoyancy that simply makes it hard to resist.
2022 Morgon “La Roche Pilée”
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The newest addition to the Thévenets’ Morgons, La Roche Pilée is lush and light at the same time, with a balance of soft minerality referenced in the name (which means crushed rock).
2022 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.
2021 Morgon “Charmes - Infusion”
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This classic, cool-weather vintage of Quentin Harel’s one hectare holding in Morgon spends three months macerating in concrete amphora. The result is a distinct softening of its crunchy, mineral-laced bramble.
2021 Chiroubles “Cuvée Léa”
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Floral and succulent, bursting with notes of little red berries, but it is also delicate and light on its feet.
2022 Beaujolais Blanc “Clos de Rochebonne”
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A wine with an unexpectedly aromatic bouquet and bright, zippy palate—a testament to the natural elegance that embodies all of Château Thivin’s wines.
2021 Brouilly
France | Beaujolais
A generous dash of plump, sun-ripened fruit enveloping a granite core.
2021 Régnié “Grain & Granit”
France | Beaujolais
Here is a rich, bold Régnié, saturated with luscious fruit and earthy spice.
2021 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.
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 Chiroubles “Cuvée Léa”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2022 Beaujolais Rosé
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2021 Côte-de-Brouilly
Nicole Chanrion France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon
M. & C. Lapierre France | Beaujolais
2022 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes”
Bernard Diochon France | Beaujolais
2021 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2022 Brouilly “Reverdon”
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2021 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2021 Beaujolais-Villages
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “La Roche Pilée”
Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
2021 Chiroubles “Cuvée Léa”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2022 Beaujolais Rosé
Domaine Dupeuble France | Beaujolais
2021 Côte-de-Brouilly
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2022 Morgon
M. & C. Lapierre France | Beaujolais
2022 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes”
Bernard Diochon France | Beaujolais
2021 Fleurie “Les Moriers”
Domaine Chignard France | Beaujolais
2022 Brouilly “Reverdon”
Château Thivin France | Beaujolais
2020 Brouilly
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2021 Fleurie
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2021 Beaujolais-Villages
Alex Foillard France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “Vieilles Vignes”
Guy Breton France | Beaujolais
2022 Morgon “La Roche Pilée”
Jean-Paul et Charly Thévenet France | Beaujolais
Kermit once said...
Kermit once said...
For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.