I love this. It’s a Fleurie made by the talented Andrew Nielsen, Aussie ex-pat and micronegoce based in Beaune. In 2015 he made more Beaujolais than Burgundy, and he’s enthused about the potential of Gamay. This is a 2014, but he’s particularly excited about 2015, which is a cracking vintage in the region. ‘Beaujolais as a region is just going to explode,’ he predicts.
He uses whole clusters, and presses off when there’s a gravity of 1000. After pressing, there’s still about 30-50 g/l of sugar, so fermentation carries on off the skins. The wine goes into old barrels, including 350 litre barrels from Dujac.
In 2015 he also made a Fleurie Poncie, with 3 weeks on skins at 7 C. He has a device that Philippe Pacalet introduced him to which injects carbon dioxide into the bottom of the tank, and which then works its way up to the top – useful when carbonic maceration is taking place to protect the grapes. Andrew uses a lighter at the top of the grapes, and when it is extinguished he knows there’s enough carbon dioxide.
This is a lovely lighter-style red. ‘Fleurie is all about aromatics,’ says Andrew. ‘So why would you want an extracted Beaujolais? There’s more than enough of that around.’
Du Grappin Fleurie 2014 Beaujolais, France
Light in colour and really fresh and pure with supple red cherry fruit. Ethereal and fine-textured with amazing elegance and finesse. This is massively drinkable, and shows lovely purity of fruit. 93/100
Find this wine with wine-searcher.com
- Gamay 1 – RPM Gamay Noir California
- Gamay 2 – Domaine Metrat Chiroubles ‘La Scandaleuse’
- Gamay 3 – Orofino, Similkameen Valley, British Columbia
- Gamay 4 – Julien Sunier Fleurie
- Gamay 5- Radford Dale Thirst Gamay, South Africa
- Gamay 6 – Louis Claude Desvignes Morgon Javernières ‘Les Impénitents’
- Gamay 7 – Hauts de Chasselay, Coteaux du Lyonnais
- Gamay 8 – Serol Les Originelles, Cote Roannaise
- Gamay 9 – Te Mata Gamay Noir, Hawkes Bay
- Gamay 10 – Puy de Dome, Auvergne
- Gamay 11 – Beauregard Fleurie
- Gamay 12 – Antoine Sunier Morgon 2014 and Regnie 2014
- Gamay 13 – Thibault Liger-Belair Les Roucheaux 2011
- Gamay 14 – Bow and Arrow 2014 Oregon
- Gamay 15 – Domaine de Fa Beaujolais en Besset 2014
- Gamay 16, Pearl Morissette Cuvée Mon Unique Gamay 2013
- Gamay 17, BK Wines et Le Grappin Les Deux Fous Gamay
- Gamay 18, G Spot Vin de…France, Beaujolais Villages
- Gamay 19, du Grappin Fleurie 2014
- Gamay 20, Lapierre Morgon 2014 ‘N’
- Gamay 21, Bass Phillip Gamay 2014 Gipplsand
- Gamay 22, Château de Durette Morgon ‘Hommage’ 2014
- Gamay 23, Joie Farm Gamay 2014 Okanagan, Canada
- Gamay 24, Samantha Gamay 2014 Okanagan, Canada
- Gamay 25, Julien Sunier Fleurie 2015
- Gamay 26, Jean-Paul Thevenet Morgon 2015
- Gamay 27, Lapierre Morgon 2009
- Gamay 28, Domaine Verdier-Logel Poycelan 2016
- Gamay 29, B Kosuge Wines Gamay Noir 2015 Carneros
- Gamay 30, Herve Souhaut La Souteronne 2015
- Gamay 31, Easthope Family Winegrowers Gamay Noir 2015 Hawkes’ Bay
Jamie
Love the Beaujolais series you’ve done as I massive fan of that region.
Got a bottle of the ’14 fleurie as an apology for a slight cock up with an order from le grappin.
Their wines are just lovely so really looking forward to trying it, so it’s good to see your positive review. Just one point though is £18 stretching it for a fleurie or most Beaujolais wine for that matter. There is some fantastic stuff out there especially from the wine society that retails around the £12 mark. These are wines from established winemakers but anyway I don’t object to paying for proper wine just wondered if you thought that the price tag makes it a little uncompetitive in the UK.
James
Hi Jamie, so does the device have a name? And do you mean the device helps of even starts the carbonic maceration? Could someone consider the device to be “bluffing”? 🙂
Matti, it is basically a long lance attached to a cylinder of liquid CO2. You put the lance into must and release liquid CO2 to the bottom of the cuve. The CO2 bubbles through the must. It’s pretty cool fun, but liquid CO2 doesn’t come cheap!
Hi Andrew, what’s the advantage of liquid CO2 in this context over just sparging in through the bottom valve?
Cheers,
Harry