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Château Thivin, Côte de Brouilly

Beaujolais, France 2014 (750mL)
$28.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Château Thivin, Côte de Brouilly

We try to wax poetic around here every now and again, but there’s nothing we’re going to come up with that’ll top importer Kermit Lynch’s description of Château Thivin’s wines. “A country squire who is not afraid to get his boots muddy,” Lynch writes. “Handsome, virile, earthy, and an aristocrat.”
That’s ‘drop-the-mic’ talk right there, but we owe you a little more detail than that: Château Thivin is the reference-point producer in Côte de Brouilly, one of the southern-most ‘cru’-designated villages in Beaujolais. Mont Brouilly is a dormant volcano that lends a distinctive mineral character to its wines—some of the most age-worthy in the zone—and one glance at this wine’s label and you know you’ve picked a classic. This 2014 from Thivin is a category-defining wine in cru Beaujolais. From the first sip to the last, it’s a bright, energetic push-pull of red fruits and smoky minerality—an old-school benchmark which, if sipped with the right mix of discernment and insouciance, grants you honorary French citizenship. It’s the red you want handy, slightly chilled, all summer long!
Château Thivin is the oldest property on Mont Brouilly. It was built in the 15th century and has been in the same family (Geoffray) since 1877. It has long been an anchor of Kermit Lynch’s famous French import portfolio (first introduced to him by expat author Richard Olney in the late-‘70s), and wines like this Côte de Brouilly are perhaps best described as archetypes. If I were looking for a quintessential cru Beaujolais to use in a blind tasting, this would be at the top of my list.
 
Claude and Evelyn Geoffray are the latest guardians of the Thivin legacy, having begun the conversion to organic viticulture back in 2008—no small feat in their extremely steep-pitched vineyards on Mont Brouilly. The vines for the Côte de Brouilly are 50+ years old, rooted in the distinctive blue volcanic rock of Mont Brouilly. The Geoffrays employ traditional ‘whole cluster’ fermentation and transfer the wines to tank using gravity (the grapes are never crushed). This wine was aged for 6 months in large, used oak foudre before bottling.
 
In the glass, this 2014 Côte de Brouilly has a lighter, more crimson core than many new-release cru Beaujolais, with hints of pink and orange at the rim. The aromatics are wild and brambly, with fruity notes of wild strawberries, raspberries, and red/black currant mingling with dried herbs, a whiff of smoke, iron shavings, and leather. This is the structured, ‘Burgundian’ end of the cru Beaujolais style spectrum (as opposed to the more deeply fruited, plummy end), and while this wine opens up nicely after 30-45 minutes in a decanter—revealing notes of rose petal and lavender—I’d be curious what 2-5 years in the cellar would do. The backbone is there for aging, without a doubt. If you’re enjoying this wine now, decant it about 30 minutes before serving at around 60 degrees in Burgundy stems. I’d also endorse an even cooler temperature, which will moderate the acidity and bring out more fruit—the real ‘pro’ move would be to double-decant it (i.e. splash it into a decanter, then funnel it back into the bottle) then plunge it into some ice for a bit. That is old-school ‘bistro style’ brought home, so I’m suggesting a rustic, bistro-style dish to accompany it—an herby pork tenderloin with mushrooms. I wonder how many people drink this wine then hop online to shop for flights to France. I’ll bet it’s a lot. Cheers!
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Country
France
Region
Beaujolais
Sub-Region
FranceCôte de Brouilly
Soil
Volcanic
Farming
Organic
Blend
Gamay 100%
Alcohol
13.0
OAK
Large French Oak 'Foudre'
TEMP.
55-60
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2020
Decanting
30 Minutes
Pairing
Pork Tenderloin w/ Mushrooms

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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