Alcohol: 11.8%
Grape(s): Gamay
Localization: Beaujolais, France
Tasting notes: The Nouveau is always a wine that suggests to us the innocence of young teenage love. That first time in a barn surrounded by a field of wild flowers. Innocent nubile fun!
The Domain: Rémi and Laurence (his wife) Dufaitre began purchasing vines in and around the Brouilly and Cote de Brouilly crus in 2006, he began to work the land organically, and started harvesting the grapes. Rémi began by selling his grapes to the local co-op, all the while monitoring the indigenous yeast population until he felt it was healthy enough to make his own wine. In 2010 he made and bottled his first vintage. When Jean Foillard tasted Rémi’s wine, he immediately sought him out, recognizing the obvious talent that must be behind the wine. Jean has since taken Rémi under his wing, introducing him to his vast and diverse list of Parisian clients. Remi’s wines currently have a very avid following in the bustling Paris natural wine scene as a result of this.
Rémi is a member of the informal group that has evolved from Kermit Lynch’s “gang of four,” the producers in Morgon who studied with natural-wine-pioneer Jules Chauvet (winemaker and biologist), making natural wine (Foillard among them). This group has grown to include younger winemakers like Rémi, who are working in the same spirit. If you find yourself in Villié-Morgon on a Sunday morning or afternoon, take care because this group is likely to envelop you and make you drink Beaujolais all day until the wee hours of the morning!
Rémi makes wines in a classic carbonic style, using whole bunches, which are carefully sorted to avoid broken grapes or rot. He adds some carbon dioxide gas to protect the grapes at the beginning of fermentation and does not use any temperature control. He avoids foot stomping the grapes unless he sees some volatility starting to creep in. His goal is to have as little juice in the tank as possible. He also performs routine analysis to see how the yeast is performing and whether or not there is any volatility. Remi makes all his wines with the same method, thus we can really see and taste the differences between the sites, with minor differences in the elevage of each cuvée. He tastes each cuvée before bottling and may decide to add between zero and 2 mg of sulfur, depending on how stable he judges the wine to be.
Buy 6 bottles of regularly priced (not on sale) wines and receive 5% off.
Buy 12 and receive 10% off.
Email sale wines do not combine nor count towards the above discount.
We would consider all wine to be "Natural". The term "Natural Wine" has the connotation of lacking a touch with nature. The winegrowers we champion are those who are farmers first. They seek to capture the uniqueness of the site (terroir) in the purest way possible. The product is as pure as possible and without wine-making flaws (brettanomyces, mercaptans, volatile acidity, etc.
Raw, in this case, we define as realistic and not manipulated. The winemakers use the least amount of intervention as possible. Wine should be made in the vineyard, not the cellar. The winemaker's job is to get the wine into the bottle in the purest form possible. There are additives that go into making wine, some are essential and some are not. Wines in this category do not have extra additives. They are free of added sulfur, or have the most minimal amounts possible in order to provide shelf stability for the consumer to experience the wine as the winemaker intended it to be.
