Winemaker Notes
A blend of select vineyard sites owned by Chaize, situated around the historic Château, this flagship cuvée stands as the epitome of the estate's excellence. Each parcel undergoes individual vinification, ensuring meticulous attention to detail and preserving its unique qualities. Representing the essence of the Brouilly Cru du Beaujolais, renowned for its deep granite soil ideal for Gamay grapes, this wine captivates with a harmonious blend of complexity and fruity aromas, embodying the essence of its terroir with unparalleled finesse.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fragrant and delightful Brouilly that's juicy and subtle. Elegant, medium bodied palate. Lively acidity and soft tannins for the 2022 vintage. The aromas and the balance are fantastic.
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Jasper Morris
Subtitled Les Amants Magnifiques in the French market, after a work by Molière (music by J-B Lully). Mostly from the lieu-dit Chavannes, on blue volcanic soil on the west side of the mountain. A richer fruit concentration and a completely different profile with the darker fruit and more austere character of the slate. Higher acidity just short of volatile but gives one desire to drink more. 13.5% alcohol. Drink from 2025-2030. Tasted: April 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blackberry, black plum, and cassis aromas open on the nose along with hints of cigar box and cranberry skin. The palate is round with an adolescent acidity on the precipice of maturity. Hints of dried orange peel infuse the wine with added complexity. Taub Family Selections.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
The bucolic region often identified as the southern part of Burgundy, Beaujolais actually doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the rest of the region in terms of climate, soil types and grape varieties. Beaujolais achieves its own identity with variations on style of one grape, Gamay.
Gamay was actually grown throughout all of Burgundy until 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banished it south, making room for Pinot Noir to inhabit all of the “superior” hillsides of Burgundy proper. This was good news for Gamay as it produces a much better wine in the granitic soils of Beaujolais, compared with the limestone escarpments of the Côte d’Or.
Four styles of Beaujolais wines exist. The simplest, and one that has regrettably given the region a subpar reputation, is Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the Beaujolais wine that is made using carbonic maceration (a quick fermentation that results in sweet aromas) and is released on the third Thursday of November in the same year as harvest. It's meant to drink young and is flirty, fruity and fun. The rest of Beaujolais is where the serious wines are found. Aside from the wines simply labelled, Beaujolais, there are the Beaujolais-Villages wines, which must come from the hilly northern part of the region, and offer reasonable values with some gems among them. The superior sections are the cru vineyards coming from ten distinct communes: St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Any cru Beajolais will have its commune name prominent on the label.