Jean Paul Brun Cote de Brouilly

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：5211

Like Brun’s other crus only three weeks in bottle when I tasted it, his 2010 Cote de Brouilly – around a third of which did time in his sole foudre and in older barriques – led with a provocatively pungent nose of smoky black tea, horseradish, quarry dust, and just-ripe blueberry and red raspberry. Bright and invigorating, it gushes with tart-edged fruit while delivering more than enough complexity to elicit head-scratching between sips. Sustained and saliva-inducing in its finishing flavors, it should remain a delight for at least the next several years. Brun seeks to assure me that a richer dimension will emerge once this has had a bit more time to rest post-bottling. Jean-Paul Brun and his Terres Dorees – for a bit more background on which, consult especially my report in issue 184 – continue to be the source of some of Beaujolais’s most exciting wines and best values. “I’m very content with my 2010s,” remarks Burn, but I suspect most lovers of Beaujolais will express their enthusiasm with less restraint. (Brun’s Pinot Noir, Chardonnay “Vinification Bourguignon,” and Roussanne were all still in the midst of their elevage when I visited with him and were not tasted.)Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334-8191

The Brun 2008 Cote de Brouilly displays rather austerely tart black fruits and underlying stoniness, with fresh spinach, coffee, and walnut adding faintly bitter and vegetal notes. Somehow, the tartness here does not translate into really refreshing or clear finishing character. That said, there is certainly a concentration of some admirable elements and a sense of coiled spring energy. To be revisited. Jean-Paul Brun – like Pierre Chermette – made his reputation in Beaujolais the hard way (as if making a reputation anywhere in this region is easy!) by taking a vocal position on quality and crafting exemplary wines with the lowest regional classification, plain “Beaujolais,” from chalk-clay soils in the south. Only then was he able to acquire fruit and eventually properties in the northern, granite-based crus, a collection which now forms a quartet (whose performance in vintage 2007 I missed and Brun did not volunteer to re-stage this spring). Chalk clay soils in the south of Beaujolais distinguish not only the eponymous appellation but also explain the prevalence of Chardonnay – most bottled as Bourgogne Blanc rather than Beaujolais Blanc, and of which Brun’s is not only the best, but one I rate among the world’s handful of consistently finest Chardonnay values.Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191