Domaine Dupeuble "Beaujolais Rouge" Beaujolais, France 2024

FROM KERMIT LYNCH:

THE WINE: Avec toutes mes amitiés Beaujolaises, “with all my Beaujolais friendship,” is how Ghislaine Dupeuble signs her emails. That detail succinctly summarizes her warmth and the essence of her family’s wines, which exude just what her signature suggests. Domaine Dupeuble is our most southern Beaujolais producer, situated in the hamlet of Le Breuil, just northwest of the food capital of Lyon. This part of the region boasts such dramatic landscapes and striking terroir that just a few years ago UNESCO declared the area a Geopark—worthy of protection for its spectacular geology. Here, Gamay grows on granite, schist, and pierres dorées, golden limestone that offers a privileged terrain for grapevines to dig deep in a way that’s wildly different from plantings in the sandier soil surrounding Villié-Morgon.

Dupeuble’s rouge is thirst-quenching and tangy with loads of violet and réglisse, aromas you might expect from fruit that grows so close to the Rhône. Enjoy it with anything from grilled sausages to homemade pizzas, herby rice and beans, or late-summer tomato salads. One glass of this simply made and easy-drinking Beaujolais will provide centuries’ worth of tradition, generosity, paysan culture, and friendship.

THE PRODUCER: In the hamlet of Le Breuil, deep in the southern Beaujolais and perched above a narrow creek, the Domaine Dupeuble has been running almost continuously since 1512. The name of the domaine has changed just three times in its history, most recently when the last heir, Anna Asmaquer, married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. Anna’s son Paul, and her grand children Ghislaine and Stéphane Dupeuble, manage the domaine. Kermit first met Ghislaine and Stéphane’s father, Damien, for lunch in Paris in the late 1980s, and thus began the annual tradition of blending the KLWM Beaujolais Nouveau.

Tradition runs deep in the family, but each generation has also managed to add something new, including increasing the property. Today it is comprised of one hundred hectares, about forty percent of which is consecrated to vineyards. Strong advocates of the lutte raisonnée approach to vineyard work, they tend their vines without the use of any chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The vineyards, planted primarily to Gamay, face Southeast, South, and Southwest, and about two thirds of the property is on granite-based soil. The grapes are harvested manually and vinified completely without SO2. The wines are not chaptalized, filtered, or degassed and only natural yeasts are used for the fermentation. The wines of Dupeuble represent some of the best values in the Beaujolais today and are widely regarded for their very high quality and eminently reasonable price.