100% Gamay

Food pairings: White and red meats, poultry and fish, Lyonnais classics such as œufs en meurette, saucisson brioché and the hearty mâchon spread, charcuterie of every kind, Asian dishes, and anything off the barbecue.

Winemaking: The grapes are picked by hand and vinified the traditional Beaujolais way, as whole bunches in a semi-carbonic maceration of about five days in concrete vats, with only the native yeasts and two pump-overs a day. The wine is not chaptalized, sulfites are kept to a minimum, and it then rests for three to six months in concrete tanks, which keep it fresh and fruity, before bottling. In 2024, a very "Beaujolais" vintage with moderate yields and a cooler season, it shows the fruity, easy-drinking, fresh red-fruit style the cuvée is made for. It is meant to be enjoyed within about two years, lightly cool at 12 to 14°C (54 to 57°F).

Vineyards and terroir: Les Griottes takes its name from the wild cherry trees that border the vineyard. The 30- to 40-year-old Gamay vines, pruned in the Guyot style, grow around the family homestead in the hamlet of Le Vissoux in Saint-Vérand, in the "Pierres Dorées" country of the southern Beaujolais. Unlike the mostly clay-limestone soils of the south, the ground here is dark granite: rare plagio-granites, related to the blue stone of Morgon's Côte du Py but richer in sand and pebbles. There is only about 40 cm of topsoil over the solid rock, so the vines push their rootlets into every crack in the granite, which gives the wine more structure and a distinct sense of place. The vineyards are farmed sustainably and the estate holds France's highest environmental certification, HVE level 3.

Family and history: The Vissoux family has lived and farmed in Le Vissoux since at least the 17th century; the oldest record, from 1636, shows them paying taxes to the local lord, and Claude-Marie Vissoux built the estate's vaulted stone cellar in 1873. Eugénie Vissoux married Maurice Chermette in 1946, and he replanted the vines and sold the wine to merchants. Their son Pierre-Marie took over in 1982 at the age of 22 and began bottling at the estate, building it with his wife Martine into one of the benchmark family domaines of the Beaujolais, with crus in Brouilly, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent and Saint-Amour. Long known as Domaine du Vissoux, it became Famille Chermette in 2018, and since 2023 their son Jean-Étienne has run the estate, making the wines alongside his father.

In the pictures: Vineyards west of the village of Saint-Vérand in the southern Beaujolais (photo: Sebleouf, 2025, CC BY-SA 4.0). The golden-stone church of Saint-Vérand (photo: MediAtta, 2012, CC BY-SA 3.0).