Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes 2020

  • 91 Robert
    Parker
  • 91 James
    Suckling
3.9 Very Good (21)
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Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes 2020  Front Bottle Shot
Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes 2020  Front Bottle Shot Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes 2020  Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2020

Size
750ML

Features
Green Wine

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

L'Ancien comes from Jean Paul's oldest vines--hence the name of the wine--in his home village of Charnay in the southern Beaujolais. They range in age from 40 to 60 years old and are planted on slopes sporting the area's signature sandy clay-limestone soils, featuring the particular local "dorée" or "golden" limestone that is laden with iron. These older vines have always been farmed organically and harvested by hand and yield small, thick-skinned Gamay berries. As for all Terres Dorées reds, the vinification is traditional Burgundian. The grapes are rigorously sorted and destemmed, crushed and fermented with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats. The wine is aged in concrete until May-June after the vintage.

Professional Ratings

  • 91
    The 2020 Beaujolais l’Ancien soars from the glass with scents of cherries, red fruit compote and plums. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's rich and enveloping, with succulent acids and an expansive finish. More gourmand than its 2019 counterpart, it's a dramatic, appealing wine that's already drinking well.
  • 91

    This wine is way more than you expect from basic Beaujolais, with generous red-berry and cherry fruit, plus positive, supple tannins and crisp acidity that together make this taste much lighter than you expect for 13.5% alcohol.

Other Vintages

2019
  • 92 James
    Suckling
  • 91 Robert
    Parker
2018
  • 92 Robert
    Parker
2017
  • 92 Robert
    Parker
  • 91 James
    Suckling
2015
  • 91 James
    Suckling
  • 90 Wine
    Enthusiast
2012
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
2009
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
2008
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
2007
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees
Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees, France
Jean-Paul Brun started Terres Dorées in 1979 with a mere 4 hectares of vines in Charnay in the southern Beaujolais, an area which is slightly warmer and more limestone-driven versus the more renowned granite-rich cru villages in the northern Beaujolais. Today, the Charnay estate is around 30 acres, but with an additional 15 hectares farmed in the crus. The farming in Charnay is organic and includes working of the soils; the cru parcels are farmed sustainably and the soils are not worked. Harvest is by hand and of well-ripened but not over-ripened fruit, so alcohol levels are generally modest. Annual Terres Dorées production is around 350,000 bottles, 85-90% of it from estate fruit with the rest of it sourced. From the beginning, Jean-Paul carved a different path for himself in Beaujolais. Not only does he not chaptalize (common practice here), he has also always eschewed the relatively modern technique of carbonic maceration, in favor of traditional Burgundian vinification. His feeling was and remains that the character of Gamay and its varied terroirs is obscured by whole-cluster fermentation, as well as by the use of commercial yeasts and copious sulfur. He has never strayed from that philosophy, continuing to carefully sort and destem his grapes; add no yeast; add no sulfur (until a touch at bottling); allow for several weeks’ maceration; do regular pigeage or punchdowns; and age in a combination of concrete and old oak, varying with vintage and wine. Jean-Paul is not an adherent or advocate of “natural wine” per se, yet is among the most natural of Beaujolais vignerons, uninterested in trend or fashion but deeply committed to purity of expression of fruit and site. The individuality of those expressions--the fact that each is a different wine from all of the others--is intentionally emphasized by his choice to label every one of his many bottlings with a completely different label.
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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.

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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.

FRMLD1012920_2020 Item# 799665

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