This marks the third vintage we have carried from Pascal Aufranc, one of the most distinctive Beaujolais producers we have run across.\u00a0 It all started with four acres of vines in the now emerging village of Chenas\u00a0(the estate is now up to 10 ha.).\u00a0 The old vines for this cuvee sit at the top of a granite hill called En Remont topped with sand at a little over 1000 feet elevation.<\/p>\n
Besides the extreme vine age (yes, they were planted in 1939) and unique exposure (south and south-west on the hill-top), these particular vines have a rather different story.\u00a0 They are surrounded by forest and, therefore, are removed from being influenced by any of the other farming concerns around them.\u00a0 So these \u00a0old vines pretty much exist in a world of their own.\u00a0 That does much to explain why the vintages we have sold are so distinct from each other.\u00a0 Each year the vines develop in harmony with that year\u2019s weather and not much else gets in the way. As such they seem really reflect the unique nuances of each vintage.<\/p>\n
The results we have tasted from Aufranc have been spectacular for a variety of reasons, certainly not the least of which are the really old vines sitting in a place unlike any other.\u00a0 Each effort has been a poster child for the best of what the particular vintage has to offer.\u00a0 The 2014 was cool, elegant and pretty, the 2015 more packed with accessible, flashy fruit though in a way that panders to hedonists that might be considered atypical (however delicious) to Beaujolais purists.<\/p>\n
The Pascal Aufranc Chenas Vignes de 1939 2016 <\/a><\/strong>displays the best elements of what might be called classic Beaujolais.\u00a0 There is plenty of fruit, but the fruit has verve and a cooler edge.\u00a0 Lovely notes of expressive dark cherry and plum act as the central theme to a purely rendered Chenas that also demonstrates smoke, mineral, fresh herbs and exotic spice.\u00a0 Plenty of fruit here, but there’s a lifted, more polished, more aristocratic bent to the flavors.<\/p>\n There\u2019s plenty to like here for the hedonists still, though\u00a0it’s less overtly sweet and fleshy.\u00a0 As for the traditionalist, we can\u2019t imagine a more complete rendition of the genre than this although, sadly, this one\u2019s focus and concentration has as much to do with the small vintage crop as anything.\u00a0 Grab some while you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This marks the third vintage we have carried from Pascal Aufranc, one of the most distinctive Beaujolais producers we have run across.\u00a0 It all started with four acres of vines in the now emerging village of Chenas\u00a0(the estate is now up to 10 ha.).\u00a0 The old vines for this cuvee sit at the top of … Continue reading “Paul Aufranc: Beaujolais in its own World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[235,94,234,65,176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}