2018 Chateau Thivin Cote de Brouilly Cuvee Zaccharie

In years past, I have been treated to many good bojos in friends’ efforts to disprove my general thought that they’re rather disappointing. I’ve not ever been a big fan of any gamay, and used to seek out bojos hoping for big bang for my buck. Let’s face it, when you’re broke as a joke in law school, a great wine at a low price, even relatively low, is a real treat. Unfortunately for me, I was never impressed.

On Friday, I stopped in at Pogo’s in Dallas, which is a wonderful wine a liquor store in Dallas, to pick up some wines I’d ordered over the past few months. While I was waiting I perused the racks and stumbled across the “Alfert and Henriquez” rack, laden with 14 Joguet and a brilliant selection of bojos. In a moment of weakness and at the urging of some good folks on this board I decided to take another stab and walked out with some Thivin, Thevenet, and Jean Foillard (and some Joguet and Levet and Lamy…I’m telling you, great store).

I decided to crack one and dip a toe back in:

2018 Chateau Thivin Cote de Brouilly Cuvee Zaccharie Garnet in color. Bright, aromatic nose of grape, bright cherry, peppercorns, meat, dried blood orange. Palate shows nice, rich fruit with a nice slightly creamy texture. The brambly cherry fruit, exotic spice, and meaty potpourri notes are gorgeous. I’m struggling to describe the wine but it is very complex. Good punch of acidity to keep things from being too lush for a mid bodied wine, and backed by fine tannins that suggest this can age really nicely for a long time. A wonderful wine. Among the best QPR I’ve had in while, and a revelation. This was fantastic. 93. Need to get more so I can lay some down and try it as it ages.

4 Likes

Nice! Great bojos, are, well… great. They can be quite compelling!

awesome note John, so glad you loved it. Thivin really is the best QPR in the world of wine, and these cuvees are rather special. The A&H rack is real, baby!

Looking forward to your thoughts on the other cool geeky stuff you bought.

Looking at the 2019 Zaccharie right now, which I hope is not quite as solar as the 18.

1 Like

Thivin is the shizzle. Great note, makes me extra happy with my case of the 2019 Zaccharie I recently bought (at $20/each!). I’ve not tried any Thivin special cuvees or vineyard bottlings yet, just the Reverdon and the CdB.

That’s insanely good pricing, even if it was jus the “regular” CdB!

Yeah the 18 Zaccharie was def not $20, and if it was, I’d be backing the truck up with a rented uhaul attached for extra capacity.

2 Likes

Holy cow. Where did you find Zaccharie at $20/btl?

Five or six of us bought a case or half case of the 19 Zaccharie at Zachy’s. I heard about it on another board. Several of us have already taken delivery.

It was most likely mispriced, as after a week or so at $20, Zachy’s raised the price to $50. But they still had all of our orders in the warehouse and they didn’t try to claw our orders back or anything. We assumed they decided to honor the earlier price.

However it happened, an epic deal.

Strangely, K&L lists 2019 Zaccharie for $40 in stock and $50 pre-arrival… and there are lots of bottles in stock. I have one of these to try soon.

2 Likes

Let me know how it tastes! I wont’ be able to ship from K&L until the fall unfortunately :frowning:

I had a similar experience, though without nabbing a Bojo that high quality for half price. For quite a while, Beaujolais was so thin and uninteresting, offering little other than a very light strawberry note, no finish, not even really acidic on the back end to keep you interested in it while eating. Then, once I discovered great Beaujolais, it was remarkably different. I find that the price and quality vectors are far more uneven with this wine than any others, perhaps because it tops out at only $50 or so (with exceptions, of course) while the ‘cheap’, uninteresting stuff is around $15-20. The jump in quality, however, is FAR greater

Look at you, big boy, dropping bombs like “vectors”!

Kane causes me to break my 36-hour dry streak!


ABFB8404-65D2-4A8C-8B98-3E8B24FA1B9E.jpeg

Wish I had cases of the 2016, how’s it showing?

Me too! An excellent wine. Showing beautifully with these five years on it.

One of the best labels on any wine.

It has good flavor and balance but it’s pretty burly. I had the Sept Vignes at the same time and I’d prefer it for now. It’s really good, much more suited to a Burgundy palate.

1 Like

My foursome arrived today. Ridiculous deal.

This.

Instead of producers with traditional labels changing their labels to bland, flavorless modern labels, I wish more producers started to label their wines with these cool, striking old-school labels!

Indeed this.

I love popping this at a dinner party with non-wine geeks who may have a preconceived idea of what Beaujolais may be, and I do not say a word. Just let them enjoy. The label looks cool, the wine is excellent, and then I may say something about it. Roilette’s label is cool, too, especially the Griffe du Marquis.