Domaine Romy Beaujolais Les Pierres Dorees Vieilles Vignes 2021
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Suckling
James
Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Round and juicy with flavors of raspberries and redcurrants. Refreshing with a final delicate touch of pepper.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Here’s a quietly confident 2021 basic Beaujolais that shows you could make wines with depth and harmony in this challenging vintage. Attractive raspberry fruit, some supple tannins and a long stony finish give this plenty of interest. Sustainable. Drink now.
Other Vintages
2020-
Suckling
James
Dominique and his son Nicolas Romy are 10th generation winemakers tied to the land. They cultivate their vines in a natural manner, strictly adhering to Terra Vitis requirements – their main objective is to maintain the biological balance of the vines and soil with as little human intervention as possible. Old-fashioned agriculture is king at Domaine Romy, with grass growing between the vines and special attention dedicated to green harvesting in order to lower the yields and maintain the high quality of the grapes.
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.