Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes

France
Beaujolais
2022

100% Gamay. L'Ancien comes from Jean Paul's oldest vines--hence the name of the wine--in his home village of Charnay in the southern Beaujolais. They range in age from 40 to 60 years old and are planted on slopes sporting the area's signature sandy clay-limestone soils, featuring the particular local "dorée" or "golden" limestone that is laden with iron. These older vines have always been farmed organically and harvested by hand and yield small, thick-skinned Gamay berries. As for all Terres Dorées reds, the vinification is traditional Burgundian. The grapes are rigorously sorted and destemmed, crushed and fermented with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats. The wine is aged in concrete until May-June after the vintage.

91+ points
"Jean-Paul Brun’s 2022 Beaujolais “Cuvée l’Ancien” Vieilles Vignes is a fine example of the vintage, but it is a young and structured wine (like a Cru) and will need some cellaring time before it starts to drink with generosity. The youthful nose offers up a bright and precise blend of cherries, sweet cranberries, vinesmoke, pigeon, a complex base of soil, a dollop of fresh thyme and a topnote of rose petals. On the palate the wine is bright, deep and full-bodied, with impressive transparency and grip, moderate tannins and fine balance on the long and tangy finish. Give this a few years of bottle age to blossom. 2026-2040+."
John Gilman,
View from the Cellar
January 2024

SKU/Code: 
DB8957-22
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Gamay
Farming Type: 
Organic