Jean-Paul Brun, who founded his Domaine des Terres Dorées in 1979, is one of the greats of Beaujolais. Eric Asimov of the NY TImes agrees, saying he is "a fan of just about anything Jean-Paul Brun produces, from his cru Beaujolais to his straightforward Beaujolais L’Ancien Vieilles Vignes and Beaujolais Blanc to [his] lovely rosé".

What sets Jean-Paul apart? For one thing, he is a natural winemaker who staunchly refuses the label. Fine, we'll take him at his word. And yet, it's hard to find a more natural winemaker out there. He farms organically or sustainably, preserving and championing old vines. He ferments with natural yeasts, minimizing interventions. He may not be in the Natural Wine club, but that's because he was Natural Wine before Natural Wine was a thing.

He also stands out in Beaujolais for not using "carbonic maceration" fermentation (in which fermentation starts inside uncrushed berries), preferring a more "Burgundian" fermentation in which destemmed berries are crushed, allowing the juice to begin fermenting in the tank, and the wine to extract more "stuff" from the grape skins, including tannin and other polyphenols.

The result is immediately pleasurable wines with all the Beaujolais freshness you could dream of, but also with enough stuffing to age a few years in the cellar.

Where does the name, "Terres Dorées" ("Golden Earth" or "Golden Land") come from? The terroir, of course! The soils in the warmer, southern part of Beaujolais Brun calls home, are full of a rare iron-rich limestone.

What importer Bowler Wine has to say about this wine...

100% Pinot Noir. Jean-Paul Brun's estate is in the rolling hills of Charnay in the southern Beaujolais, where the main grape of the area and his property too is of course Gamay. But the clay-limestone soils here are friendly to other varieties, particularly Pinot Noir (as well as Chardonnay and Roussanne, both of which he grows here); Jean-Paul began planting Pinot in 1991 and now has a total of 5 hectares. The farming is organic, the harvest by hand and the sorting of the bunches meticulous. The vinification is traditional Burgundian: the grapes are destemmed and fermented with native yeasts and without sulfur in concrete vats. Maceration lasts around 3 weeks. The wine is aged in concrete--with an occasional touch of large old oak vat--and bottled with a light, non-sterile filtration and minimal sulfur. The Pinot Noir is classified simply as Bourgogne AC.