Jean Paul Brun Fleurie

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Brun’s tank-raised 2010 Fleurie – from the Grille-Midi sector, although he confines the use of that name on the label to his cuvee from older vines and better parcels – leads with sour cherry and purple plum wreathed in iris and peony. Its crunchy fruit counterpoised with beef marrow and nut oil richness on a fine-grained palate, this finishes with saliva-stimulating persistence, citrus zest and salt adding to its sense of irresistible invigoration. Look for at least 3-4 years of mental and sensual stimulation. 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

Brun's 2009 Fleurie - based on purchased fruit - displays remarkable depth and intrigue of mineral and animal nuances to accompany its pristine evocation of diverse, ripe black fruits. Roasted meats, smoked meats, marrow, stone, and mineral salts; black tea and peat make for riveting complexity in a wine that is dense yet buoyant, richly-fruited yet vivacious, and positively vibratory in finish. This stupendous value should hold up well for at least 5-6 years - not that one would want to miss out on it in its glorious youth. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191

Brun’s 2008 Fleurie is based on purchased fruit, but represents an exercise in the crafting of a cru in which beginning this year he has vines of his own. Bright, brash, sappy red raspberry and plum in fresh and distilled formats are allied to salted, toasted nuts, fruit pit bitterness, and a clean, marrow-like meatiness. The texture is lean and the finish slightly austere, but this is a wine of admirable energy and complexity, likely to be worth cellaring for at least 3-4 years. It comes from fruit on the west side of the appellation, but if you’d have asked me, tasting blind, I would probably have said “Moulin-a-Vent or nearby Fleurie.” 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