Cote de Brouilly La Chapelle 2021

A red colour with bluish reflections, and a subtle flavour of violet and peony. In the mouth it distinguishes itself with a lovely balance of silky tannins and wild red fruits such as wild strawberry or bilberry. The finish is long and peppery.

This Côte de Brouilly can be charming and lively in its early youth, and can equally become noble and elegant when laid down (three to eight years).

In 1948 a number of famous journalists and gastronomes including Curnonsky, Clos-Jouve and Henri Monnier from the newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, to name but a few, founded the “Académie Rabelais”, which met and still meets to this day in the château’s harvest room. As Claude et Yvonne Geoffray had no children, it fell to their nephew Claude, my father, to continue the work they had begun; he became one of the leading figures of Beaujolais. My elders sadly departed young, and in 1987 left the care of Château Thivin to myself and my wife Evelyne (who brought with her another family estate, Le Manoir du Pavé).

In 2007 my son Claude-Edouard joined us, having completed an advanced education in viticulture and wine-making at the specialist college of Changins in Switzerland, and having gained work experience on various vineyards in France and abroad.

Thivin is at the very heart of Beaujolais, and has an atmosphere all of its own, as a château on a human scale, with its roofs of glazed fishscale tiles, nestling on the slopes beneath Mont Brouilly, surrounded by vines. The traditional aspect of the château goes hand-in-hand with impeccable winemaking skills and techniques; the process is laid out on various levels, and is designed to work by gravity, for the sake of the grapes and the wine. A beautiful vaulted cellar of blue stone houses the oak “foudres” (casks) in which the wine matures, and an older cellar beneath the château provides the perfect conditions for laying down the wine once bottled.