Two Takes on The Côte de Brouilly from Pierre Cotton
While many Beaujolais trendsetters bottle their wines in the spring or early summer, Pierre Cotton has just bottled his two cuvées of Côte de Brouilly in December. He regularly bottles later than his neighbors, but his wines retain a maximum freshness and elegance. Late bottling is not a stylistic choice - these wines are simply not ready to be bottled earlier, and Pierre refuses to rush things along.
Both Côte de Brouilly cuvées, 100% Cotton and Les Grilles, come from the steep hillside vineyards just next to the winery on a unique soil called “Corne Verte”, a blend of pink granite and diorite found only in Odenas. 100% Cotton was the first cuvée that Pierre produced, and after a few years he decided to keep a part of the vineyard separate. This part is bottled as “Les Grilles”, meaning “the grids”, because the different colors of granite, diorite, and clay line up here in particularly straight lines like grids.
These are some some really “rocking” bottles of Gamay; they have that magical, drinkable, joyful quality that has endeared Beaujolais to so many wine lovers of late, and are most certainly worth the wait.