Given the remarkable abundance of great wines that are out in the marketplace these days, finding the right ones at the right prices is a monumental and never-ending tasking. At the point where we actually do find something that gets us excited, particularly the ones where all of the boxes (quality, style, typicite, and price) get checked, we commit without a blink. At that point it’s out of our hands until the wine arrives. Often it is merely a process of the purveyor putting it on a truck and sending it. Sometimes it becomes a lot more complicated. This was one of those times, though we will save the particulars for another piece on the sometimes curious ways in which the industry works.
You have likely heard us jabber on about the fantastic 2015 Beaujolais. Several months ago we had the opportunity to taste what might be some of the best values of this sensational vintage. We started working with Stephane Aviron’s wines back with the also highly revered 2009 vintage. At the time he was working with Nicolas Potel under the heading ‘Potel-Aviron’. Delicious Beaujolais, fresh and fruit driven, and at remarkable prices for what they delivered, those were among the many exciting new faces we discovered with that breakout vintage in Beaujolais.
Aviron and Potel parted ways but we continued to follow Stephane because the guy could definitely make wine, and made it in the lifted, engaging, can’t-put-the-glass-down style that would win friends for the genre. Oh yeah, and he still sold the stuff for 199os type prices. In other words just about the best of all possible scenarios. Needless to say when we knew we were going to have the opportunity to taste his 2015s, there was definitely interest.
The fact that the wines were compelling was no surprise. Some of the wines that were particularly successful wasn’t necessarily what we might have predicted. Running through the lineup, among the most impressive offerings were the Julienas and Chenas, not the appellations that usually rise above. We picked the Stephane Aviron Chenas Vieilles Vignes 2015 between them because this appellation rarely merits this kind of attention. Don’t get us wrong. Good Chenas is exciting, but it is also something of a rarity as the region doesn’t necessarily have too many superstar labels (though that might be changing thanks to folks like Thillardon).
Made from pre-phylloxera vines that average over 100 years-old, from a 13.6 acre parcel that Stephan Aviron has been producing from since 1993. The soil is light and made up mostly of sand and small pebbles over a layer of clay and quartz which explains that brighter, more delicate and outgoing nature of the fruit in this engaging beverage.
While we think the Chenas is a crowd pleaser, we know the more serious Beaujolais types like to have something with a little more pedigree. To that end, consider the Stephane Aviron Morgon Cote du Py Vieilles Vignes 2015. Again the focus is on lip smacking fruit, as is the house style. But there is more firmness, salinity, minerality, and maybe a little smoke by virtue of this respected hillside terroir. His vineyard faces south on the slopes of this inactive volcano and the vines are a minimum of 40 years-of-age. Like the Chenas, the well-under-$20 price is pretty enticing for a wine of this quality and this one might even benefit from some bottle age though it has that classic 2015 outgoing drinkability.
We tasted these wines way back in the early spring and they have just arrived (we have been getting deliveries of 2016s from a number of purveyors already). Why did it take so long? Let’s just say for some the ‘wheels of commerce’ turn more slowly. But on the bright side, these are excellent performers at their modest fares and any opportunity to grab a few more of the flashy ’15s, especially at these kinds of prices, has to be considered a good thing.