What is a Premium Cru Beaujolais?
These are NOT your typical fruity, simple Cru Beaujolais. These are one of a very small number (fewer than 10) of premium Cru Beaujolais that are becoming more available in the US market. Other wines in this category include Foillard's 3.14, Metras Fleurie VV & Ultime, Guy Breton Morgon P'Tit Max, Jules Desjourneys anything and Morgon "Cuvée Marcel Lapierre" and "Cuvée Camille." The wines tend to come from older vines, have greater extraction and fruit and slightly greater hang time, slightly longer vinifications and barrel ageing. And in today's case very unique vinification They are more structured, intense and capable of long ageing. Prices range from $40 (when I sell them) - $70. They are typically made in small quantities and are hard to find (especially in the States).
Today I have two epic monuments to the 2015 vintage from a producer I adore. Just adore. He is Jean-Claude Lapalu and he has flown to the top of the Beaujolais hierarchy in my opinion after changing his style from full throttle/higher extraction and intense to elegant, refined, balanced and long. Without a doubt he is one the most important voices in the new Beaujolais Revolution. He is very good friends with Metras, Lapierre and Foillard but has a style that is unique to his own. His wines are insanely popular in Paris where at least 1/4 of his production is sold. He makes a lot of wines (10 in any given vintage) and with the style change in his winemaking he has left many consumers confused. Plus his American importer does not sell his best wines because of the whole "ceiling wine" region thing. Basically his best wines, which I am offering today, would be very expensive through 3-tiers and in all odds not sell, so there is a price/quality ceiling on Beaujolais. I continually have been able to farm this opportunity as a result of this huge flaw in our 3 tier system when it comes to these ceiling wines. Some of the wines he makes are in a very different style than others. He really reaches and pushes like all great winemakers can. There are big structured wines with old wood, there are low sulfure vin de soif cuvees and there are Amphorae and parcel specific Cuvees. It's a lot as he continues to push the envelope but one thing they all are is delicious. Never opened a bottle of Lapalu I haven't fawned over. I believe he is natural as well but that's never what's attracted me to his wines, it's that they are some of the best I've ever tasted.
Up first is a site specific Brouilly, the 2015 Jean-Claude Lapalu Cuvee de Fous ($37.99 on a 3-pack) which is never exported to the USA except via the '11, '14 and now '15 Fass Selections has imported. It is one of the best wines in Beaujolais. I brought the 14 to a party and I was wowed by how refined and precise it was while being unmitigated Brouilly. It had dark Brouilly fruit and classic Brouilly earth but was also pretty, deep and very refined. Even though the wine is in a Bordeaux style bottle that makes one think this is a more structured and muscular Brouilly when in fact that is the opposite. His more structured and wooded cuvees go in Burgundy bottles. It is a wine of finesse, length, tremendpus sap and perfume. Oh what perfume this wine has. Dirt, flowers, sweet fruit and an umami character that cannot be described. Very special wine. The balance is extraordinary. It is on a par with Metras. It is a bit riper in 2015 but just as refined if not more refined as I find Lapalu is one of the best in warmer vintages. 05, 03 and 09 are excellent here.
One also needs to understand the remarkable transformation Lapalu wines have gone over in the last five years. While even as recent as 5 years ago his wines were still in the "Priorat of Beaujolais mode" whilst now he is on the level of Metras, Foillard and Lapierre as being contemplative and pleasurable at the same time and also with an insane sense of refinement. He seeks much less extraction than when he was making wines in 2003 and even as recently as 5 years ago. It's quite an evolution that has led to the next wine, which is just beyond. Just beyond. The 2015 Jean-Claude Lapalu VDT "Amphorae" can be had for $49.99 a 3-pack and is, for me, the new stud bottling in Beaujolais. This is a very expensive wine even with my model and I took low margins on this as I want it to be $49.99 to get as many people as possible to try it. 100% Gamay in an Amphorea. Jean-Claude was against the idea at first and only ordered one from the potter in Seguret reccommended by Domaine Viret (who makes killer bio/org/cosomoculture/natural Seguret). He loved the results so much that he now since 2009, makes a number of different ones, of this which is the top and I believe one of the signature wines of Beaujolais. It is a wine that is for aging, or needs a serious decant on Day 1, but it exhibits freshness like you will not believe and a depth that is very special. There is a zen character that I have only found recently in Amphorae aged wines like Ange and Invictus from l'Ecu and Madloba from Miquettes. That almost non-possible balance and freshness is in this wine and makes is unique to Beaujolais. It is actually the same parcel as his more wooded (10 months in old wood) Brouilly "Croix des Rameaux" and has a 40-45 day maceration in the Amphorae with no added yeasts. It just starts to ferment in these terra cotta Amphorae. A 40-45 day maceration is nuts.
2015 Jean-Claude Lapalu Brouilly "Cuvee les Fous" - $39.99
($113.97 3-pack) (LIMITED)
2015 Jean-Claude Lapalu VDF Amphorae - $52.99 ($149.97 3-pack) (LIMITED)
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