Le Rocher rouge 2018

Le Rocher rouge 2018,

Nicolas Chemarin

This infinitely silky and luscious red, mineral and very straightforward, is a Beaujolais-Villages that is ideally enjoyed between 14 and 16°C. It is made from Beaujolais Gamay grapes grown in the Combe Fleurette area, at an altitude of 550 meters and on an average 40% slope, facing south, on a plot of blue granite with very shallow soil. The vines, twenty-five years old, rest on a rocky outcrop. The harvest is aged in whole bunches for forty days with regular turning. After pressing, the young wine is aged on fine lees in Burgundy oak barrels. Bottling is done in the waning moon, without fining or filtration.

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Nicolas Chemarin, nicknamed "P'tit Grobis" as a resident of Marchampt (Beaujolais), is the fourth generation of winemaker on his family wine estate in the Beaujolais-Villages appellation, on stony land where he crafts wines of surprising depth and sincerity. In 2005, he took over two hectares of his father's vines and in 2006 he produced his first vintages. In 2008, he acquired other vines and decided to devote himself solely to his estate, whose very steep terroir consists of poor, rocky soils on gray granite rock. The vines rest on the bedrock through very thin soil, and their roots plunge deep into the rock. Depending on the configuration of the soil, the vines are pruned in goblet or raised on stakes. Their average age is eighty years. The grape varieties, Gamay and Chardonnay, are classically Beaujolais. Nicolas also cultivates two other terroirs in the Régnié appellation: Les Bullats, with light, filtering sandy soils, and La Haute Ronze, very close to Morgon, whose deeper, clayey soils produce full-bodied wines. The vintages undergo long macerations (from 18 to 30 days) with punching down and temperature control (Nicolas works cold, around 20°C). The aging is done partially in thermoregulated concrete vats for a third, the remaining two thirds passing into barrels of four to ten wines in order to provide oxygenation but little or no woody sensation. Nicolas Chemarin is already very well known in the natural world for his sweet and fruity vintages, wines of pleasure, and for vintages from difficult and magnificent terroirs, provided with admirable and complex mineral, aromatic and spicy notes.