Pierre-Marie Chermette ‘Les Champs-Grillés’ Saint-Amour Rouge 2020

Location: France, Beaujolais, Saint-Amour

Winemaker: Pierre-Marie Chermette

Grapes: Gamay

Soil: Granite

Winemaking: Half carbonic maceration with two pumping per day, maceration from 10 to 12 days in concrete tanks, no chaptalization, minimum of SO2.

From us at M&L: The terroir of ‘Les Champs-Grillés’, with an area of 3 hectares, is rare and precious since it represents only 1% of the AOC Saint Amour. It was created in 1964. Very flowery on the nose. A balanced wine with a beautiful body and complex aromas of red fruits.  It is the wine of the lovers’ day, Valentine’s Day!

From the Importer Weygandt-Metzler: Domaine du Vissoux may just be the most perfect expression of what we seek, for wines to show their ability to be natural and great, at once.

A masterful 5th generation grower, Pierre has maintained the strict traditions of his ancestors and of the region, with more tenacity than most. Despite fashions changing, Pierre has, for his entire life, adhered only to the classic methods handed down from his family. This means farming in as sustainable a manner as possible, only using indigenous yeasts for every wine, long fermentations and making whole-cluster (semi-carbonic) wines in the old foudres built by his great-grandfather. Pierre Chermette's yields are so low and the grapes so naturally ripe that he does not chaptalise. The wines are bottled with little or no filtration and the addition of no sulfur or very little depending on the cuvée.

Given the life Pierre imbues upon the wines, they are as stable as Premier Cru Burgundy and age for nearly as long in many cases. They are, nevertheless, utterly "glugable" upon release. The wines of Vissoux are a fascinating study in terroir, tradition and talent, with the pricing more befitting a wine half as great.