2017 Pierre Boyat Noir de Rouge

WINEMAKER: Pierre Boyat
REGION: Beaujolais, FR
VARIETY: Gamay
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

Gamay from 50 year old vines grown on a blend of granite, sand, limestone and basalt. 100% whole bunches fermented and raised in concrete. 2017 - A little fuller, richer and with more youthful fruit than, say, the 2014, but with a fraction less complexity.

Recently retired, Pierre farmed several small parcels scattered around the village of Leynes, literally straddling the border between Macon and Beaujolais, just to the south-west of the town of Macon. The vineyards are planted to Chardonnay and Gamay and comprised about 3 hectares. Previously, Pierre worked on his family estate, farming conventionally, for many years before a meeting with legendary natural producer Philippe Jambon sparked within him an urge to start again, farm organically, and produce wines with zero additives. He sold the family property and in 2007 began working on the three new parcels. The vineyards are very healthy and Pierre is wildly enthusiastic about soil health and biodiversity.

The wines are very good. There was very little winemaking in the winery though fruit was sorted with a fanatical level of detail. Whites were pressed and eventually run into bottle after roughly 11 months and the reds were fermented without being destemmed with elevage happening in a mix of large format wood and tank. The reds are mineral, medium-bodied and very nourishing and the whites are ripe but with a freshness that comes from low PHs, the result of years of great farming.