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2022 Régnié
Guy BretonI vividly recall tasting Breton’s Régnié with the man himself in Villié-Morgon a few springs ago. Floating on a Gamay-induced cloud of silky fresh berries, I wondered, Grapes can do this?? My brow furrowed as I contemplated an inevitable problem: Bottles won’t be big enough. Buy only magnums? Does it come in buckets?
I am no scientist, but something about the chemical properties of carbonically fermented Gamay from ancient vines in granite soils, bottled unfiltered with barely any sulfur, causes the stuff to evaporate from the bottle at an accelerated rate. Savor it while you can, because your glass will be empty before you know it, leaving you only with the spicy, mineral-laden aftertaste of a bottle that went down way too easily.
—Anthony Lynch
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2022 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Gamay |
Appellation: | Régnié |
Country: | France |
Region: | Beaujolais |
Producer: | Guy Breton |
Winemaker: | Guy Breton |
Vineyard: | 40-50 years, 1 ha |
Soil: | Granite, Sand |
Farming: | Organic (practicing) |
Alcohol: | 13.5% |
More from this Producer or Region
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Notes of stones, pear, and citrus... Enjoy as a refreshing, mineral apéritif or alongside your favorite fresh seafood.
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Floral and succulent, bursting with notes of little red berries, but it is also delicate and light on its feet.
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French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan says nostalgia is the longing for a past that never was. But, hand to god, this year's Cuvee Marylou tastes just like the raspberry thumbprint cookies my mother used to make for Christmas.
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October Club Gourmand ~ Here is a rich, bold Régnié, saturated with luscious fruit and earthy spice.
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An opulent, mouth-filling expression of granitic terroir, this bottling has the delicate floral nuances and fine-grained tannin that differentiates Fleurie from the other crus.
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Floral and succulent, bursting with notes of little red berries, but it is also delicate and light on its feet.
2020 Brouilly
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A generous dash of plump, sun-ripened fruit enveloping a granite core.
About The Producer
Guy Breton
About The Region
Beaujolais
After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.
The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.
Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.
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2023 Beaujolais Blanc
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2022 Côte de Brouilly
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2022 Chiroubles “Cuvée Léa”
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch