Domaine Emmanuel Fellot Les Cailloux Cote de Brouilly 2020

Cru Beaujolais is one of the world's greatest wines for QPR. You can get a wine with some of the things that set apart the world's most expensive bottlings for just a fraction of the price. Things like organic viticulture, small family cellars, old vines, hand harvesting, minimal intervention, and careful winemaking. 

The Fellot family has been growing grapes in the Beaujolais region since the early 1800s, and Emmanuel is the latest in a line of winemakers interpreting their village terroir. This Côte de Brouilly is their flagship red, a wine that represents both the best of what the family winery makes, and a great expression of the Côte de Brouilly vineyards, specifically the Cailloux site on the eastern slope of the hill (towards the bottom of the vineyards near the village in the picture above). 

So you're probably wondering, what did I sense when I put my nose in the glass? Well first off, this wine had dried lavender notes. Beaujolais is supposed to be a floral wine, so that was somewhat expected, but this aroma was resinous and flowery and exotic in a way that few reds achieve. Once you're past the lifted, floral nose, the first sip greets your palate with fresh red cherries and raspberry pie cooked in a cast-iron Dutch oven. Fresh cut tarragon and granite and peach pit bitterness round out the finish.