Stephane Aviron Cote de Brouilly Vieilles Vignes 2015
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Robert
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The appellation of Côte de Brouilly sits on the high slopes of the extinct volcano Mont Brouilly and is surrounded by the larger appellation of Brouilly. The Stephane Aviron Côte de Brouilly is sourced from two separate vineyards. The first makes up about 75% of the blend and sits in the pour soils facing southwest on the hillside. Vines average 60+ years old. This parcel accounts for the wines depth and structure. The second parcel faces due south with younger vines (40+ years) and contributes ripe juicy fruit to the final blend.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Cote de Brouilly Vieilles Vignes offers attractive, quite winsome mulberry and loganberry fruit on the nose, hints of broom and sorrel emerging with time. The palate is fresh on the entry with supple tannin, well judged acidity and an appealing if short, tensile finish. Enjoy over the next five to six years.
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2021-
Enthusiast
Wine
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Parker
Robert
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Enthusiast
Wine
Stephane Aviron has adopted an almost radical return to tradition in Beaujolais: sustainable viticulture, extremely old vines and classic Burgundian techniques. His cru Beaujolais drink like fine Burgundy.
Historically considered "poor man’s Burgundy," a modern movement toward fruity, simple, quaffing wines boosted sales but eroded the region’s traditional quality. Stephane Aviron has reversed the trend. By focusing on the Beaujolais village crus, the best sites for unique, expressive wines, and finding old parcels of vines, Aviron creates very expressive, age-worthy wines relying on traditional and new methods, including organic and biodynamic vineyard management. All wines are labeled "Vieilles Vignes," old vines, because the vines are at least 40 years old. Stephane Aviron’s wines are authentic in every way.
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.