Beaujolais has become one of my favorite old world wines, and the Brioully Cru seems to be my favorite to this point.   The dry, tart, minerally wine of this region is light bodied and very enjoyable.  Plus, they have an amazing label that they share among the vineyards of Brouilly.

I recently purchased a couple of bottles of Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes  from Garagiste, and can’t describe this wine any better than Jon Rimmerman:

Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes has some of the oldest vines in all of Burgundy and Beaujolais, noted to date back to pre-phylloxera times (1860s). No one knows for sure which of the vines are 100 or more years old (or 80 or 70) as they are all jumbled together but it hardly seems to matter.

In 1944, when the German army was ensconced in France it was here that the  battle of Brouilly ensued (sort of a French layman’s version of the battle of Bunker Hill).  The farmers and winemakers held their ground and bunkered their belongings and pieces of French and family lineage inside the top of Mont Brouilly (where the Ambassades vineyards lie). Shots and shells were fired at the farmers by the German military machine and the shrapnel remnants remain today as holes in century old trees - with a distinct entrance and exit wound pointed directly at the Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes. It is here that the German army continued a retreat that started in the Rhone Valley and helped (in some small way) batter their resolve enough to help end the war.  The title of this wine, the Cuvee des Ambassades, may have more to do with history and its ushering in of a new European era than with the obvious nod to present day dignitaries.

The Cuvee des Ambassades is produced from a reserve of the most admired acreage at the top of the Mont Brouilly (as noted above), and it is not only their best effort but it is always one of the finest wines of the region. The label is circa 1930 and it is a completely different style than the above mentioned Descombes (which is rugged, masculine and tannic). The Ambassades, on the other hand, opens like a purple dream of Gamay that floats through a feminine wall of rock, like a psychedelic trip through a time warp and into a present day haze of velvet and mineral ringed lace full of kaleidoscopic images of the past.  With exposure to air, it changes over and over like a great Burgundy and the sultry spice, silk and grace belie the 12.0-12.5% alcohol.