This wine is consistently among the most graceful Beaujolais, year after year and regardless of hot or cool vintage conditions.

—Josh Raynolds, Vinous
 
Back in 2018, James Suckling tasted this then-young wine and said, 'Drink or Hold.' Did you drink and not hold? It’s OK, because Chanrion knew we wouldn’t be able to keep our hands off and held some bottles for us all. Now, nearly ten years on, she's released them, and they're magnificent.

Back-vintage cru Beaujolais are rare treasures. Most of the great wines get drunk young, simply because they’re so delicious in youth. And what little is cellared usually gets consumed by the smart folks who cellared them. We just don’t see them trading hands very often.

Chanrion's library releases are doubly special. She's one of the great Cru growers featured in Kermit Lynch's pathbreaking portfolio. Unlike the more famous (and Morgon-based) Lapierre and Foillard, Chanrion has quietly been making wines of equal stature from the cru of Côte de Brouilly. She took over her family domaine in the 1970s, when French winemaking culture was male-dominated, and worked on her own until becoming president of the appellation, and affectionately-known locally as 'La Patronne de la Côte.'

What made her a local star is the same thing that makes her a favorite around here: her ability to bottle incredible expressions of the Cru’s distinct terroir. The Côte de Brouilly sits on Mont Brouilly's hillsides, a prehistoric volcano that left blue schist and volcanic rock throughout the slopes. Like those great Morgon producers, Chanrion reveres old vines (this cuvée comes from 50-year-old plants densely packed midslope) and works sustainably in the vines and traditionally in the cellar, with whole-cluster fermentation and large foudres.

The result is a wine that, young, is succulent and powerful with “pure fruit character” (Kermit’s words) and all the classic Beaujolais nuances of florality and hints of minerality.  But a wine that, with age, becomes so much more: more complex, more elegant, with the terroir’s minerality, animal notes and underbrush complementing the fresh, high-toned fruit that remains.

Domaine de la Voute des Crozes (Nicole Chanrion), Côte de Brouilly, 2016 $43.99
James Suckling's full 2018 quote read: "Very plush, smooth and supple with a flinty edge. Has a palate with a smooth, succulent and juicy mouthfeel. A really fresh and gently spicy finish. Drink or hold." We're glad that Nicole Chanrion agreed — 8 years later and the wine is starting to pick up flavors and a structure reminiscent of mature Pinot.