It rather fascinated me that, on my recent two-week trip to Victoria, Australia, the wine that all the wine producers were geeking out over was beaujolais. They were in awe of burgundy (cue reverential tones), but, as one of them said to me with a shrug: ‘Who can afford it now? It’s a special-occasion wine.’ Beaujolais, I was told, is affordable and ‘crushable’. Of course, Max Allen wrote recently about the rise and rise of Gamay Down Under, so none of this should have been a surprise to me. But it did remind me of some affordable and decidedly crushable beaujolais wines I’ve tasted in the last year, one of which is Château de La Chaize’s 2022 Brouilly.
Château de La Chaize has a slightly longer pedigree than that of Australian Gamay’s 50 years – the family-run estate has been producing wine for 350 years. And they’re doing this at scale, with 150 ha (370 acres) of vineyards across four appellations (Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie and Morgon). But what is most impressive about this estate is the stunningly ambitious project that owner Christophe Gruy (who bought the estate in 2017) is undertaking with his son, Bruno Gruy, who is the estate manager of Château de La Chaize.
They set out five objectives:
- to convert all 150 ha of their vineyards to organic certification
- to run the whole estate off-grid on sustainable energy
- to use only machinery, vehicles and equipment that run on electricity or hydrogen
- to close the loop on all viticultural and winemaking practices so that the operation is zero waste
- to become carbon neutral.
The extent to which they are achieving these goals already is remarkable. All of the vineyards received organic certification in 2022 – no small thing considering that these vineyards are spread out across 23 parcels over four appellations. Furthermore, they have reintroduced cover crops between rows, they mulch instead of applying herbicides or ploughing, they feed the soil with only local and natural fertilisers, and they graze sheep in the vineyards over winter.
A small-scale geothermal plant produces the thermal energy needed to regulate the temperature of tanks and buildings, and they are in the process of installing a photovoltaic solar park with battery storage. The old cellar, built in 1771, has been completely restored, but a new, modern winery has been built entirely underground, complete with a network of pipes at a slope of over 2% so that must and wine can be transported without pumps through every stage of vinification including bottling. Oh, they also lay claim to the longest underground cellar in Beaujolais, at 108 m (354 ft).
All waste water from the main buildings and winery is recycled through a natural water-treatment system planted with reeds, and the recycled water is used for the gardens as well as for the additional trees that they have planted. They have built catchment basins and also collect rainwater and run-off to supply the fountains and water the formal gardens.
There is a management plan to protect and maintain the estate’s 300 ha (741 acres) of forest and woodland with the aim to plant another 50,000 trees over the whole 450-ha estate. To encourage pollinators, they’ve established wildflower meadows and installed 25 of their own beehives (producing 500 kg of wildflower honey every year).
It’s been, and continues to be, an enormous undertaking – an investment not only into the future resilience of the estate, but also into the future of the planet. But I knew none of this when I tasted their 2022 Brouilly in late October last year, writing, ‘I fell so hard for this Brouilly …’, and gave it 17.5/20. It somehow manages to be soft-fruited and brimming with plashy juiciness while drawing on a deep well of dark stoniness. It tastes of raspberries and blackberries, of ink and earth, of orange peel and old bricks. The tannins seem to simply graffiti the fruit with street-art panache. A wine that is delicious and has soul. What’s more, this stainless-steel fermented, 13.5% wine, aged for about nine months in old oak, is under £20. Affordable and crushable indeed.
Vintage Roots in the UK are selling it for £18.99 a bottle, and Millesima for £120 per case of 6. In the US, you can find it in California, DC, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York State and Washington. Empire Wine in Albany, NY, has it on special at a mere $18.95! You can also find it in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland.
The image at the top of the page is of Château de La Chaize (© Jean-Luc Mege).
