Winemaker Notes
Côte de Brouilly was Jean-Paul's first cru bottling. He farms vines ranging from 40 to 55 years old, facing east and midway up a steep slope (up to a 45-degree grade), on poor soils of hard granite and iron; he does not work these soils as he does the ones down in Charnay. The vinification is traditional Burgundian. The grapes are rigorously sorted and destemmed, crushed and fermented with indigenous yeasts and no sulfur. Maceration lasts 3-4 weeks (Côte de Brouilly and Fleurie are the shortest) in concrete vats; aging is in concrete for 6-8 months before bottling with gentle filtration and a small amount of sulfur.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of violets and black cherries pull you into this bright and refined Côte-de-Brouilly that has a long, clean and mineral finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Côte de Brouilly hadn’t been bottled when I tasted it, and Brun was still undecided as to whether he might give it a light fining, but the wine showed promise, offering up a deep bouquet of cherries, blackberries and licorice. On the palate, it’s medium to full-bodied, chewy and concentrated, with some firm structuring tannins that explain Brun’s quandary.
Barrel Sample: 89-92
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.