Read
Mike Steinberger's column
at Slate here about Jean-Paul Brun's reluctant conflict with French
wine bureaucrats.
If you’re looking for “Beaujolais” made to simulate Cote d’Or Burgundy,
or Chilean Merlot, this is not your wine. Rather, this is Beaujolais
in all of its intense, raw, and purely delicious essence. Its charms
are revealed progressively and it pairs well with food.
The Domaine des Terres Dorées is located in Charnay, a village in
the Southern Beaujolais just north of Lyons, in a beautiful area known
as the “Region of Golden Stones.” Jean-Paul Brun is the owner and
winemaker at this 40-acre family estate and has attracted the attention
of the French and American press for the wonderfully fruity and delicate
wines he produces.
Brun wants to make “old-style” Beaujolais and his vinification differs
from the prevailing practices in the region. He believes that the
charm of Gamay’s fruit is best expressed by the grapes’ indigenous
yeasts, rather than by adding industrial yeast. Chaptalization is
avoided, so is sulfur, and the wines are bottled without filtration.
Brun’s wines are not ‘blockbusters’ in the sense of ‘big.’ The emphasis
is not on weight, but on fruit: Beaujolais as it once was and as it
should be. (Portions of this text were borrowed from Joe
Dressner.)
2007:
On September
18th 2008, the 2007 Beaujolais l'Ancien Vieilles Vignes,
Terres
Dorées appears to be organized at least as much around acidity as
it is around tannin (in contrast to the 2005 at this stage, which
was more tannic.) Complex and naturally juicy tasting, vivid rushes
of fresh berry flavors are counterposed with birch bark, orange peel,
sappy tannins and salty viscosity.
The information
on this page comes in a presentation-quality pdf file: here
Shelf
talkers in pdf: here
