Jean-Francois Ganevat Julien en Billat l'Enfant Terrible du Sud 2021

Julien en Billat l'Enfant Terrible du Sud is Ganevat's most joyfully subversive red — a Pinot Noir that looks at everything Burgundy does with the variety and decides to go somewhere else entirely, and is all the more compelling for it. Made from old-vine Pinot Noir, Kermit Lynch's importer note captures it best: it's like premier cru red Burgundy on vacation. The terroir of Grusse En Billat is the reason why this wine is so neat and straight, Ganevat himself says — a parcel farmed biodynamically with meticulous care, receiving natural herbal preparations rather than anything synthetic, with spontaneous fermentation and indigenous yeasts the only tools the cellar adds to what the vineyard has already done. Ganevat's reds, increasingly aged in terracotta jars, have reached a remarkable level, rivalling the quality of the domaine's celebrated whites — an achievement that would have seemed unlikely even a decade ago.What a nose — wild berries, sour cherry, thyme and other herbs, a bouquet of flowers and some barnyard; on the palate pure juice, no noticeable tannins nor oak, only tart fruit of cranberries, raspberries and pomegranate, salt and orange zest. Feather-light with electric acidity and a persistent mineral core — wildly energetic and mouthwatering, a bottle that tastes like licking raspberry juice off river stones while lying in an alpine meadow full of thyme.