Fleurie = Fall

Yann Bertrand

Hi Everyone,

Other than aromatic Italian reds, like we covered yesterday, nothing says fall quite like Beaujolais. Today we are thrilled to share our tiny allocation of two very special expressions of Fleurie made by Yann Bertrand.

For those who aren't familiar, Yann is one of the young superstars of a really talented new wave of Beaujolais winemakers working naturally. He grew up in Fleurie, where his dad has run his family winery since the early 90's and had been moving toward organics from the start, but had always sold grapes in bulk to other wineries. Yann never planned on taking over the family business, but after traveling around and working in wine bars for a few years, he met Beaujolais legends Yvon Metras and Jean Foillard and realized it was time to go home and get to work.

2013 was the first vintage under his name and these wines get harder and harder to find every year, for good reason. These are not funky cartoon labeled hipster wines (don't get us wrong, we love those too), these are modern classics and made in a precise way to express each plot and vintage and they are definitely made in a style that is built to age. Also, we'll just note that 2018 has been one of our favorite Beaujolais vintages in the last decade. Here's what we have to offer today:

Fleurie Vieilles Vignes 2018 $45 Certified Organic. 100% Gamay from a 2 hectare plot of 60+ year old vines grown in pink granite sand soils - called Arene Granitique. Carbonic maceration with native yeast and no SO2 or other additions for 17-20 days. 12+ month aging in used 225-liter barrels (at least 4 years old). Racked and bottled by gravity. Zero sulfur and no fining or filtering. 250 cs produced.

Fleurie Cuvee Emile 2018 $50 This is the second vintage for this special bottling named after Yann's son and the first vintage of this wine to make it to the states. 100 % Gamay sourced from a 1-hectare lieu-dit, Grand Pré, on sandy granitic soils. The vines average 70-100 years old. The vineyard faces east. 100% whole-cluster, cold carbonic maceration. Native yeast with no sulfur added. 8 months in very old demi-muids, minimum 10 years old. Racked by gravity. Bottled unfiltered by gravity following the lunar calendar. Approx. 300 cases produced.

We're not offering these as a bundle, but buy 2 or more bottles and you'll get 15% off! Just use the discount code YANN18 at checkout. Click the links above to order.

Lots of new arrivals hitting the shelves today and tomorrow and tons of deals to be had in our Curated Cases, including some really great Beaujolais mixed in with a bunch of Spanish natural wines in this weeks Dozen for $145, which will get a new lineup on Friday.

More soon,

- B&B