The famed house of Louis Latour once again exports its Burgundian know-how outside of the Côte d'Or. After the great successes of Ardèche and Var, they decided to repeat the experience in the heart of Beaujolais with the planting of 20 hectares of Pinot Noir. The calcareous soil rich in iron oxide gives a very particular ochre colour, and the high altitude contributes to produce a surprising wine which associates richness and freshness with a beautiful aromatic complexity.A bright and tempting wine showing a dark garnet colour with an intense nose of blackfruits, blueberry and cherries. There is fullness on the palate with flavors of currant and mocha followed by a fresh finish.

Brouilly is the largest and furthest south of the Beaujolais crus. It has a good south eastern exposure, at the bottom of the Saône Valley at an altitude of 200 to 300 metres. The subsoil consists of granite debris and blue-tinged schist. This also ranked the full 5 stars in my abbreviated-for-iPad rating system! Immediately exuberant, with a diverse array of floral notes, theres also some white pepper and crushed cherry notes. Gamay varietal by Dominique Piron.

Naturally fermented and raised in a mix of the family's ancient concrete vats and steel, the fruit purity gives you insight into this great vintage with a lifted fragrance of market-fresh berries, lilac and cherrystone fruit. In the mouth it has a fleshy, juicy texture and bright, mouth-watering freshness.

The 2017 is a smoky and juicy dark cherry-and-raspberry-noted wine with sappy freshness and a nice, crunchy finish. "The late Marcel Lapierre once said of Beaujolais, Ça se bois sous la douche. (Its a wine you can drink under the shower). While this captures the simple deliciousness of much Beaujolais, it doesnt do justice to the wines being produced by the finest artisans like Pierre-Marie Chermette. Of the wines of Domaine du Vissoux we would be more likely to say, Il est trop bon pour être bu sous la douche! Its too damn good to be drunk in the shower! Beaujolais can be the most joyful, compelling and life-affirming of wines. Yet in the hands of a master it can also be a wonderfully refined, long-lived Burgundy. Domaine du Vissoux is a producer capable of fashioning such wines. This is why their wines can be found in many of Frances finest restaurants and why Vissoux remains the highest-rated Beaujolais producer in the leading French wine guide, Les Meilleurs Vins de France. Owners Pierre-Marie and Martine Chermette were among the first in Beaujolais to use sustainable agricultural practices, shunning the use of any chemicals in the vineyard and encouraging as much life in the soil as possible. They prune hard to keep yields low, harvest by hand when the grapes are fully ripe and regularly carry out green harvests to further reduce the yields and ensure full ripeness for the harvest. The wines are made with minimal intervention: wild yeasts, minimal sulphur additions and no filtering if possible. Ageing is in traditional up-to-the-ceiling, neutral oak casks."

The nose engages with ripe raspberry, forest fruits, anise spice and sweet earth and leathery notes. The palate is full-fruited with a vibrant juicy acidity that makes the mouth water and a powdery tannin profile which lengthens the finish to reveal stony earth, leather and pepperberry notes. Enjoy now and embrace the vibrant drinkability of Gamay from Beaujolais, or wait a little longer for the savoury complexity of Morgon to further assert itself into the profile of the wine.

JEAN-PAUL BRUN Terres Dorees Cote De Brouilly, Beaujolais

Dominique Piron is one of the benchmark producers in Beaujolais, producing balanced and thoughtful wines. The wine offers abundant fruit but also strucutre, resulting in a very rewarding Bojo.