Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Fleurie 2017
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
100% Gamay. Fleurie is one of Jean-Paul's two largest cru holdings, 6 hectares all within the famous lieu-dit of Grille Midi, a south-facing amphitheater of vines on poor, sandy, decomposed-granite soils over hard granite rock. The difference between this regular Fleurie bottling and his Grille Midi bottling is vine age and elevage. This Fleurie is from the younger vines, clocking in around 40 years old (versus 60 years and up for Grille Midi). As for his other wines, the vinification is traditional Burgundian and the aging in concrete, for 6-8 months for the Fleurie (versus aging in foudres for the Grille Midi).
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
What a great cherry nose this elegant and lively Fleurie has! A delicious Beaujolais with the traditional lightness of these wines and a long, very clean finish. An excellent food-wine. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Offering up aromas of raspberries, dried flowers and candied peel, the 2017 Fleurie is medium to full-bodied, elegant and layered, with an expansive attack and a deep, concentrated mid-palate, its generous core of fruit largely concealing its chewy chassis of tannins. Like all of Brun’s crus, this will improve with bottle age, but it’s also the most supple and accessible out of the gates.
Other Vintages
2021-
Spectator
Wine
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Suckling
James
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
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Parker
Robert
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Suckling
James
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.