Domaine Nicolas Rossignol Brouilly La Folie 2022
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The Land
Brouilly is the largest of the ten Beaujolais crus, and its size has made it a byword for simple, early-drinking Gamay. Its best granite sites say otherwise. The cru is the most southerly in Beaujolais, wrapped around the base of Mont Brouilly, whose volcanic blue-stone slopes form the separate Côte de Brouilly appellation. Around the mountain the ground changes to decomposed pink granite, the coarse, free-draining sand behind the most structured wines of northern Beaujolais. Brouilly spreads across six communes, including Quincié-en-Beaujolais, where Nicolas Rossignol bases his Beaujolais estate. La Folie comes from old vines on pink granite, and that rock is why this Gamay from Brouilly carries more grip than the cru's reputation suggests.
The Wine
Domaine Nicolas Rossignol Brouilly La Folie 2022 is 100% Gamay. The domaine has published little cellar detail for this cuvée, but Rossignol frames La Folie as the serious end of his Beaujolais range: a structured Brouilly red wine with ripe tannin, meant to age rather than to be poured in its first spring. The 2022 season pushed in the same direction. Beaujolais came through a hot, severely dry summer, with drought shrinking the berries and picking starting in late August in many sites, which made for small crops of dark, concentrated wine. Expect black cherry, crushed raspberry, and blood orange over violet, with the faint pepper and iron that pink granite gives Gamay. It carries more density than most Brouilly, with firm, ripe tannin and a long, stony finish.
The People
A Volnay grower making Brouilly sounds like a négoce sideline, but here it is not. Nicolas Rossignol, fifth generation of a Volnay winegrowing family and the force behind a domaine of close to 30 Côte de Beaune appellations, began buying vineyards in Beaujolais in the early 2020s. He set up a separate estate, Domaine Nicolas Rossignol Beaujolais, based in Quincié, with small holdings in Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Morgon, and Moulin-à-Vent. His stated aim is the Beaujolais of an earlier era: wines for pleasure and wines for aging, from vines he owns. In Volnay he plows instead of using herbicides, follows biodynamic principles without certification, ferments with native yeasts, and bottles unfined and unfiltered. In Beaujolais he is turning that Burgundian grower's eye on old granite vineyards.
Food Pairing
La Folie has the weight for a real dinner, served just below cellar temperature. Coq au vin made with Gamay, lardons, pearl onions, and button mushrooms is the regional match: the acidity lifts the braise and the tannin holds up to dark-meat chicken. Thick pork chops, brined, seared hard, and finished with a shallot and grainy mustard pan sauce, play against the wine's peppery granite edge. Warm saucisson de Lyon over lentils dressed with a sharp vinaigrette works because the acidity cuts the fat while the earthy lentils echo the iron. This is the Beaujolais to open for the friend who still thinks the region stops at Nouveau.
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Beaujolais stands on its own as a unique source of the world's greatest Gamay wines and one of the birthplaces of the natural wine movement. The 10 crus on the north side provide the most serious versions including Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent, but the more basic reds further south are vibrant and affordable. There's also a rare white made from Chardonnay.
Beaujolais
A red wine grape most associated with Beaujolais, Gamay makes fresh, fruity red wines with berry and violet aromas. It is grown around the world outside of France where it is often a darker and less tannic cousin to Pinot Noir in cool climate regions such as Oregon and Victoria.
