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Fragrant and juicy, with dark cherry, raspberry, blackberry and cassis, dried flowers and a hint of orange peel over a deep, dark stoniness. Elegant and medium-bodied, with lively acidity, soft, fine tannins and a refreshingly crunchy finish.
Available in store
Close100% Gamay
Food pairings: Grilled chicken, roast turkey or roast beef, and medium-aged cheeses such as Crottin de Chavignol.
Winemaking: Château de La Chaize vinifies each of its parcels separately. For the 2022, about 10% of the grapes were kept as whole clusters, and the wine fermented with wild yeasts in stainless-steel vats, with a maceration of around nine days, pump-overs and délestage rather than punching down. Sulfur was added only after the malolactic fermentation and at bottling. The wine then matured for about six months, half in large oak vats and half in concrete vats. 2022 brought a very hot, dry summer and lower yields, and the concentrated fruit gave rich, flavorful wines.
Vineyards and terroir: The estate's flagship Brouilly is a blend of several of its named plots around the historic château in Odenas, on the deep granitic sands that make Brouilly ideal for Gamay. Most of La Chaize's vineyards face southeast on slopes sheltered by the estate's forests and woodland, which form a natural barrier and help keep the ecosystem in balance. 2022 was the estate's first certified organic vintage in Brouilly: the vineyards are cover-cropped and mulched instead of sprayed with herbicides, fed only with local, natural fertilizers, and grazed by sheep in winter.
Family and history: Château de La Chaize was built in 1676 by Jean-François de La Chaize d'Aix, with architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and formal French and vegetable gardens designed by André Le Nôtre. Its historic winery, built in 1771, has a 108-meter cellar, said to be the longest in Beaujolais, and the château, gardens and winery were classified as French historic monuments in 1972. In 2017 the Gruy family bought the estate; led by Christophe Gruy, they have converted the vineyards to organic farming, built a new underground winery where the wine moves by gravity rather than pumps, and turned to geothermal and solar energy with the aim of running the estate off-grid and carbon neutral.
In the pictures: Château de La Chaize, its formal gardens and the vineyard slope behind it (photo: Belcureuil, 2013, CC BY-SA 3.0), and an aerial view of the château and gardens with its vineyards in autumn colors (photo: Xavier D'Abrigeon, 2008, CC BY-SA 4.0).
