FRV 100 Terres Dorees Gamay

Profile & Story

100% Gamay from Jean-Paul Brun's organically farmed estate Gamay vines on clay-limestone soils in hilly Charnay in the southern Beaujolais, just north of Lyon, in the area known as the Terres Dorees or 'Region of Golden Stones.' The name "FRV100" is a play on the word 'effervescent' - which becomes apparent when you sound out the letters and number in French - and is indicative of the playfulness of this off-dry sparkling rose. FRV100 is made with the methode ancestrale: the hand-harvested fruit is destemmed and fermented in vat until it reaches around 6% alcohol, then lightly filtered and bottled and allowed to finish fermenting; there is always some residual sugar. Though the vintage is not allowed on the label, FRV100 is always a single-vintage wine. Brun owns and makes the wine at this 60+ hectare family estate and wants to make 'old-style' Beaujolais: he believes the charm of Gamay's fruit is best expressed by the grapes' indigenous yeasts rather than added industrial yeast, does not chaptalize, uses only a minimal amount of SO2 at bottling and minimal filtration so the wine keeps its original fruit and aromas. Robert Parker rates Brun a four-star producer: "Proprietor Brun is a believer in using only the vineyard's wild yeast, rather than the synthetic yeasts used by most other producers. His beautiful wines are favorites among purists." Brun began experimenting with this Cerdon-like sparkling wine after progressively expanding from his original four hectares around Charnay.