Guillaume Chanudet - Beaujolais, France
(stylish Guillaume, you gotta start somewhere!)
FLEURIE: A GROUND ZERO FOR EXCITEMENT
"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence"
(Well, maybe not every wine article begins with a Robert Frost lamentation.)
Your inveterate E&R team has been traveling the road not taken for a while, but but but, we're seeing more travelers joining along with us. Yet when it comes to BEAUJOLAIS, it feels a story we will still be telling ages and ages hence. (Forget what you may think about Beaujolais, these are lovely wines.)
These days wine the world has extraordinary exhilaration in a handful of places: Beaujolais is one. Young winemakers with new viewpoints on ancient terroir are reinvigorating tradition with work creating global impact.
Consider Nicolas Chemarin - whose wines E&R was instrumental in first bringing to America seven years ago - who today is fast becoming a sought after name from France. You know, they say artists are the first to recognize great art in its newest expression. Likewise, good winemakers recognize new talent early on, and one need only ask a handful of in-the-know-Oregon winemakers (Gamay, global impact...) about Beaujolais and is amazing Gamay wines, and the name Chemarin will almost certainly enter the conversation.
On our treks to France over the past twelve-plus years we've been visiting, learning, tasting and receiving local information - close to the ground info - and are psyched to introduce the first of two young men making sensational wines. Considering these two winemakers (the second will be featured later when the wines arrive in few months), Guillaume works from old vines in the heart of the "ground-zero for excitement" Beaujolais appellation of Fleurie. We will not belabor his talents except to say he works old school style with a flair to produce transparent wines of character, purity and clarity. Guillaume's wines pristinely reflect his grapes and his family ground - in this case Gamay from Fleurie.
GUILLAUME CHANUDET: GENERATION FIVE
Last October, walking with Guillaume from his modest winery to a plot of his old Fleurie vines, his grandfather - methuselah-eque - says hello and waves. Guillaume explains his farm began in 1920 and he, at age 24, is the fifth generation Chanudet to produce wine in his hamlet of Prion. As he notes: "I vinify my wine in a traditional way, in semi-carbonic maceration (vinification Beaujoulaise) of 20 days in raw concrete, using the natural yeasts of grapes to express the best quality of the soil and according to ancestral methods practiced for generations." Guillaume exudes passion about his work - you can feel it even in how he moves and speaks and where he looks as he walks. There is much to be said for this type of energy when wedded to skill and terroir.
E&R is especially gratified to be the first in the USA to offer his wines in association with our local import partner via our "almost direct imports" work. These wines will, without doubt become well known and sought after.
(E)
Click on each wine for more detail.
