Chateau de Javernand Chiroubles Les Gatilles 2019
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Enthusiast
Product Details
Winemaker Notes
Gatilles are the little grey lizards that are abundant in the vineyards of Chiroubles, where the sunlight warms the sandy, stony soils. The 2019 Gatilles is made from 40-50 year old Gamay Noir vines from different vineyard plots of sand over granite bedrock. All vineyards are in organic converstion. Some plots are vinified utilizing carbonic maceration while others are vinified using classic Burgundian techniques. The different plots are blended together and allowed to rest for nine
months in neutral concrete tanks before bottling. The resulting wine has pretty floral nose with a mix of cherry and spice both on the nose and the palate. The wine is bright and round with juicy red fruits.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Subtle dry-earth, floral and red-fruit aromas lead you into this sleek, well structured Chiroubles that isn’t in any way dramatic, but has some real mystery at the long, delicate finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
This rich wine has a generous structure and ripe black fruits that shine brightly. Freshness and texture will allow the wine to age.
Other Vintages
2020-
James
Suckling
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.