There is more than just a passing resemblance between the label on Paul Jambon\u2019s lengthily titled Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes C\u00f4te de Brouilly and one of our benchmark sources from the Cote de Brouilly, Domaine Thivin.\u00a0 There is a whole lot of history as well as one of the more intriguing new (to us) discoveries in the world of Beaujolais.\u00a0 Now none of the folks here are newcomers, nor are they another of the wave of vintners from the Cote d\u2019Or that have taken a recent interest in these southern Burgundy vineyards.\u00a0 This estate was acquired by the Jambon Chanrion family around the time of the American Civil War (1861).<\/p>\n
The Thivin estate had already been around for quite a while, tracing its roots back to the 14th<\/sup> Century, and possibly the 12th<\/sup>.\u00a0 \u00a0Fast forward a little to shortly after the First World War when Pavillon de Chavannes\u2019 history became intertwined with that of Ch\u00e2teau Thivin.\u00a0 When Yvonne Chanrion married Claude Geoffray, he controlled Thivin, then a small estate, via inheritance. Yvonne brought with her one-third of her family\u2019s highly regarded vineyards as an inheritance, and later she acquired her sister\u2019s one-third as well.<\/p>\n Over the years, Yvonne and Claude added to Thivin\u2019s holdings with other land purchases, but the couple never bore children. Yvonne outlived her husband.\u00a0 Upon her death in 1987, the sisters\u2019 original<\/em> two-thirds inheritance reverted to Paul Jambon of the Jambon-Chanrion family, along with fifty percent of the land Yvonne and Claude had purchased subsequently over the course of their marriage.\u00a0 Chavannes de Pavillon was now a new expanded entity.\u00a0 The Art Deco wine label, created in the 1930s, was a product of Yvonne and Claude\u2019s marriage. After Yvonne\u2019s death and the restoration of the Chavannes\u2019 vineyards, this label became joint property of both Thivin and Chavannes, and now it is used by both domains under their respective names.<\/p>\n Cool stuff, great story, but as you know we wouldn\u2019t be telling it if there wasn\u2019t some pretty serious wine as a part of the latest chapter.\u00a0 Mont Brouilly is a unique spot, rising to a height of 1,587 feet all by its lonesome like \u00a0an old volcanic thumb sticking out of a plain. \u00a0The Romans cultivated vines on its flanks, and almost certainly vines to one degree or another have been raised on its steep sides ever since.\u00a0 Paul Jambon grew up here and is now making some impressive wine in the \u2018old way\u2019.<\/p>\n Today Pavillon de Chavannes consists of 37 prime acres on Mont Brouilly and Paul and Betty Jambon make two cuv\u00e9es from separate vineyards. The top wine is this one, Cuvee des Ambassades, which comes from 12 acres of Paul\u2019s best parcels.\u00a0 The name \u2018cuvee Ambassades\u2019 (ambassadors cuvee) is rather a literal one as this Cote de Brouilly is purchased by the Quai d\u2019Orsay for use in French embassies around the world. It is the last wine to be bottled by the estate in a given vintage and it is the most age-worthy.<\/p>\n The Cote de Brouilly is all about the blue granite that is laced with volcanic porphyry, or crystallized mineral deposits.\u00a0 The Cote de Brouilly appellation refers only to the higher, better-ripening parcels (the rest is simply labeled Brouilly) on the upper part of the hill.\u00a0 Within those parameters, Paul\u2019s holding are the highest and the steepest in this elevated appellation.\u00a0 As we touched on earlier, this is a very old school Beaujolais stylistically in the best sense.<\/p>\n Traditional winemaking allows this concentrated wine to showcase pure, intense red-leaning-to-black fruits with hints of spice and plenty of the granite minerality for which this particular \u2018rock\u2019 is known. \u00a0There is plenty of gushing fruit here, almost like a 2015, but the fruit has a cooler profile, more lift to the fruit and brighter flavors.\u00a0 \u00a0A recent change in the cellar (circa the 2015 vintage) has been to rack this wine in stainless steel instead of old foudres which keeps the fruit all that much fresher.\u00a0 The Pavillon de Chavannes Cote de Brouilly Cuvee des Ambassades 2016<\/strong><\/a> is classic Beaujolais that wants to be Burgundy, and it delivers on that promise.\u00a0 Mouth-filling and delicious, you can drink it now or, like most of the top wines from the \u2018Cote\u2019, it will age as well.\u00a0 Yet at $19.98 it definitely won\u2019t break the bank.\u00a0 It\u2019s an exceptional find and a lot of wine for the d\u2019argent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is more than just a passing resemblance between the label on Paul Jambon\u2019s lengthily titled Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes C\u00f4te de Brouilly and one of our benchmark sources from the Cote de Brouilly, Domaine Thivin.\u00a0 There is a whole lot of history as well as one of the more intriguing new (to us) … Continue reading “HILLTOP STAR: Pavillon de Chavannes Cote de Brouilly Cuvee des Ambassades 2016”<\/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":[94,65,340,341],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715"}],"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=2715"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2741,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2715\/revisions\/2741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}