If you are putting together a segment of your cellar dedicated to cru beaujolais what 10-15 bottles are you picking to buy year in and year out. I would definitely include Clos de la Roilette Tardive and Regular, Thivin Cote de Brouilly, Lapierre Morgon, Foillard Morgon…
Open to what other people think would be the best staples to add that would also have good ageability as well.
Metras L’Ultime
Metras MaV
Foillard Fleurie and Julian Sunier Fleurie
and on the Lapierre the N- Non sulphered version is much better than the S- Sulphered
Yvon Metras, Pavillon de Chavannes, Jean-Paul Brun, Domaine du Vissoux. I have a decent selection of different vineyards of these in cellar and have really enjoyed them.
Plenty of those mentioned already + Jadot Grand Carquelin.
The 12 below listed wines are to cellar mid to long term. To drink young, I buy other wines (like Vissoux, other wines from some of the below listed producers)
Château du Moulin-à-Vent - Moulin-à-Vent Croix des Verillats
Thibault Liger-Belair - Moulin-à-Vent Vieilles Vignes
Domaine Labruyère - Moulin-à-Vent Le Clos
Dominique Piron - Chénas “Quartz”
Paul-Henri Thillardon - Chénas Chassignol
Marcel Lapierre - Morgon
Daniel Bouland - Morgon Corcellete Vieilles Vignes
Louis-Claude Desvignes - Morgon Javernières “Les Impenitents”
Jean-Louis Dutraive - Fleurie En Champagne
Yvon Mêtras - Fleurie Vieilles Vignes
Alain Coudert - Fleurie Clos de la Roilette Cuvée Tardive
Château Thivin - Côte de Brouilly “Cuvée Zaccharie”
my yearly purchases include:
Domaine Billards
Daniel Bouland Delys & Corcelette
Coudert Tardive, Griffe (if offered)
Foillard
Lapierre
Metras
Vissoux Les Garants
Anyone drink the Drouhin cru bottlings? Gilman seems to love them but I never see them around much. Appreciate the responses so far!
Echo the obvious ones, plus Bouland Delys, which has been mentioned a couple times. That’s a very serious, structured wine, that for some reason doesn’t always get mentioned with the big boys.
10 bottles to me seems like near term consumption…if I was looking to cellar for age, vintage would matter first, then producer and I’d buy Lapierre, Thivin, and Jadot.
One of the great things about Beaujolais is that pricing doesn’t compel decisions like this, although sometimes storage space does. My list, working generally north to south:
Heavy on Morgon, but there’s a diversity of terroir and styles within those wines, so there’s little redundancy. Could easily add another 10 wines. And the list ignores near-term gems, like Ducroux Regnie.
Many great ones mentioned already, but I would also add Georges Descombes Brouilly and Morgon to the list for consideration. The old vine bottlings in particular show a lot of class, but the normal crus are consistently excellent, too.
I second the plaudits for Bouland’s Morgons — both Delys and Corcelette. Those wines age very, very well, and I am surprised they do not get more attention.
While I haven’t tasted the new Lafarge Beaujolais wines, I would imagine they might well be worth considering too.
Wasnt in terms of 10 bottles total of beaujolais more 10 different specific wines that people get each year.
Damian Coquelet Chiroubles
Any recommendations for near-term-consumption?
I’ve been slowly drinking through a case of 2009 Morgon and like it a lot. Here’s my latest tasting note, from March of this year:
Wow, what a great wine right now. The fruit is really popping, with a lot of black and red fruits balanced by some excellent acidity and tannic structure. Probably not at maturity yet, but the wine is drinking fantastically right now.
Absolutely agree on this recommendation. I’ve been testing the 2009 regular and Vieilles Vignes bottlings and haven’t seen enough of a difference to warrant the additional $$$ of the Vieilles Vignes. I think it would be tough to tell a quality difference in a blind side-by-side.
Julie Balagny.
If you can find any.
Recently ordered a ‘10 Jadot Chateau de Jacques off a wine list at a reasonable $35, expecting the base offering, and they brought me the Carquelin. Despite its youth and a pop n’ pour, it was showing very well, and just oozing potential. I’ve heard Jadot touted as a key example of using burgundy-treatment on Beaujolais, and this wine brought that home in a huge way. There were some small tell-tale signs that it was a Beaujolais, but if I hadn’t known, and had been told it was a '10 1er cru Burgundy from the CdN I’d have likely believed it as well. Is that a problem in that it wasn’t showing what we expect of place? I don’t know, but in any case it was a very nice wine.
To those suggesting Coquelet I really like his Chiroubles as well, though I have had some bottles so affected by brett - and I like some brett - that they were undrinkable.