Daniel Bouland Côte de Brouilly Cuvée Melanie 2016

Cuvée Mélanie is Daniel Bouland's Côte de Brouilly, named for his daughter and drawn from seventy-year-old vines on the southern slope of Mont Brouilly.

Côte de Brouilly covers the upper slopes of Mont Brouilly, a hill standing out of the southern Beaujolais, where the blue-green diorite the locals call cornevert makes for harder, poorer ground than the granite and sand of the crus around it. Bouland's parcel sits on the southern flank on soil derived from schist and granite with that diorite running through it, and the vines are about seventy years old. He farms fewer than seven hectares in all, worked by hand, using sulphur and copper against mildew and oidium in place of a routine spray programme. The fruit is hand-picked and fermented with whole bunches and indigenous yeasts in concrete, with two pump-overs a day, and the wine is then raised in old foudres and bottled without filtration.

It is approachable after a few years and repays longer. Serve at 16°C with charcuterie, roast chicken or a mushroom tart.

*Every effort is made to ensure the current vintage is accurate; however, variations can occur. If you are after a specific vintage, please contact us prior to ordering.