Clos de la Roilette - Fleurie, Beajolais, France (2021)

 TASTING NOTES

Pretty aromas of spiced plums, petals and orange rind, followed by a medium-bodied, supple and melting palate. Fleshy and fine-boned, it's a pretty, demonstrative wine that will show at its best young.

The fruit is hand harvested and fermented in whole clusters with native yeasts in open-top, neutral vats with the cap kept submerged; the maceration for the Fleurie is approximately 14 days. Aging takes places in old foudres until bottling in the summer following harvest.

Considered one of the finest producers in Beaujolais, Clos de la Roilette has 9 hectares in Fleurie, with one of the top slopes in all of the ten Beaujolais crus. The Clos has an eastern exposure, borders the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, and yields remarkably age-worthy Gamay. In the 1920’s, when the Fleurie appellation was first created, the former landowner was infuriated with losing the Moulin-à-Vent appellation under which the estate had previously been classified. He created a label using a photograph of his racehorse Roilette and used the name Clos de la Roilette, without mentioning Fleurie. By the mid-1960s, the owner’s heirs had lost interest in Roilette, and a large portion of the land had been allowed to go untended and wild. In 1967, Fernand Coudert bought this poorly maintained estate and replanted the vineyards. His son Alain joined him in 1984 and has been the winemaker since. The Couderts feel that their particular terroir (mainly clay and manganese) and the age of their vines (30 to 80 years old) account for the richness and intensity of their wines.