Georges Descombes Brouilly Vieilles Vignes 2021

Georges Descombes is one of the quiet heroes of the natural wine movement in Beaujolais — sometimes described as the unofficial fifth member of the Gang of Four alongside Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet, Jean Foillard and Guy Breton. Inspired by Marcel Lapierre in the early 1980s, Descombes has been producing pure, honest wines from the family estate in Villié-Morgon since 1988, farming around 14 hectares across Morgon, Brouilly, Régnié and Chiroubles using organic practices without certification, with whole-cluster harvesting and minimal intervention — wild yeast fermentation, no sulphur additions, and élevage in concrete tanks or oak barrels for up to two years for the Vieilles Vignes cuvées. The Brouilly Vieilles Vignes comes from a selection of the best old vines of the domaine, planted on the granitic soil hills around Mont Brouilly — a longer ageing in wooden containers giving the wine an incomparable silky tannin patina.

 The archetype of pleasure Beaujolais: the nose beautifully fruity with lovely notes of black fruits and red fruits — raspberry, morello cherry — and on the palate the texture very silky, delicious and beautifully fresh. Affriolant on the nose with small red fruits — complete and satisfying in the mouth, with great eclat and freshness, delicate and very fine tannins that stretch through the finish, and delicate floral and herbal notes adding relief: harmonious and delicious, with depth and complexity that belies the wine's seemingly effortless charm.