Terres Dorees Bourgogne Pinot Noir

Jean Paul Brun took over his family’s vines in Charnay, in the southern Beaujolais, in 1979 with just four

hectares. The district is called the Terres Dorées, the golden lands, for the warm ochre limestone in its hills. Brun made his name championing old-style Beaujolais, native-yeast fermentations and a pointed rejection of the industrial 71B yeast that gives much commercial Beaujolais its banana candy smell. Though Gamay is the local grape, he planted Pinot Noir around 1990 and bottles it as regional Bourgogne, farming organically and vinifying in a deliberately Burgundian way. He has since become one of the region’s most respected growers, with holdings across the Beaujolais crus. The Pinot grows on clay limestone soils, the same calcareous ground that gives the district its golden color, and limestone is the engine of the wine’s freshness. It drains well and is rich in calcium, which keeps soil pH high; wines from calcareous ground are reliably perceived as higher-acid, more vertical, and chalky-mineral. Pale limestone also reflects light and warmth, helping Pinot ripen fully in a cool climate without going soft. The clay fraction balances that by holding water and lending flesh and a little weight to the mid palate, so there’s substance beneath the lift. Because Pinot Noir is thin skinned and transparent, it telegraphs this soil clearly with notes of red cherry, cranberry, and violet over a cool, stony, savory minerality, with silky tannins and brisk acidity rather than power. Native yeast fermentation in concrete, no added sulfur, and aging in concrete with only an occasional touch of old oak keep both the fruit and the limestone unmasked.