A Beaujolais Village to trump Metras

Taste this Blind Next to Metras Beaujolais-Villages - I Dare You

One topic that I always find to be a so called "hot topic" is the fetishization of a certain producer in a

region that has a number of very good to great producers. I admit that I try not to but sometimes I can in emails for certain wines.  But I am very good at being critical of myself and the wine business even though I might participate in what I am being critical of some of the time. The people receiving these emails mostly have a decent amount of wine knowledge and in many cases more. But there is also a contingent who don't know and need to understand for example, in today's e-mail, how
Metras is perceived, or how Keller is perceived or Clos Rougeard. I do not like fetishizing producers at all because is a disservice to the great producer making great wine who does not have the same cache as say the producer who knows how to market better and the wines get in the right people's hands. Social media in wine took a while to catch one and now that it is, the fetishization has gotten even worse thanever before. So today's wine, the 2011 Terres Vivantes Beaujolais Vieilles Vignes, is a wine not many of you have heard of I am sure, can be had for as little as $24.99 a 4-pack.  They have no crus at all and only make Beaujolais-Villages. This is their best wine. This is not the the La Lutine cuvee which is below this cuvee and for $2 more a bottle wouldn't you want the best cuvee? But what if I told you, actually bet you, that if you took the 2012 Metras Beaujolais-Villages I sold last year and you tasted this wine blind next to it, that you would never buy another bottle of Metras Beaujolais-Villages because this wine crushes it. But Metras is the best according to social media and the wine cognoscenti (of which I am one of) isn't it? We like to assign best in wine, sports, cinema but really it is just preferences and people like to pigeonhole things they can't quite quantify. No one has tasted all the wine in Beaujolais to proclaim Metras is the best or worst. But it sure is easy to say Metras is the best. And it protects us from wine that could be just as good or better that we don't have to to worry about and buy more of. Metras is very good but not the "inflated" good that has happened because of hype and social media. There is an extra aura because of scarcity and he is not marketed like a LaPierre.

This wine is glorious. It is made in a very similar style to Metras' BV but the yields are frightfully low at 20 hl/ha (versus standard yields of 35-40). This is their highest end wine from vines that average 85 years. The flavor profile is very similar to Metras but it is a bit darker in fruit with more extraction. It is organically farmed and there is no SO2 at pressing and the elevage is in cuve (no wood). The fruit is crunchy, divine and overwhelmingly beautiful and pure. But it has tannin as well, not like a Roilette but also more tannin than in Metras' BV. This is flat out the best Beaujolais-Village and outdoes many producer's Cru Beuajolais wines. It is miraculous that this has never been brought in, but as this company grows and finds its audience, I consistently find that importers don't bring in all the wines for various reasons, but mostly because the most ambitious wines will be too expensive through 3 tiers. This would be a $35+ Beaujolais-Villages, It's fine to have one wine by them that is good for $23-$27 and saturate the market. I am beginning to find a niche with wines like this. The Germain single vineyard Saumurs are a great example. The other Germain Saumurs have a great presence, but his best wines, albeit made in limited numbers just aren't out there. This wine, as it is the best Beaujolais-Villages, should be out there, and finally it is. By the way 2011 is considered the best vintage of '11, '12 and '13 by most people in Beaujolais. It is also drinking wonderfully now.

2011 Domaine des Terres Vivantes Beaujolais-Villages Vieilles Vignes -
$26.99 ($99.96 4-pack)