2023 Justin Dutraive Beaujolais Les Bulands Beaujolais, France

Justin Dutraive has Fleurie in his veins. As the eldest son of the incomparable Jean-Louis Dutriave, he grew up overhearing the conversations (and sipping the bottles) of Jean Foillard, Yvon Mtras, Sylvain Chanudet and of course, his father Jean-Louis. The Dutraive family home and the Domaine de la Grand’Cour are one in the same. There is a constant flow of visiting vignerons from every generation for lunches, dinners, casse-crote (“breaking of bread”), walks in the vines, and tastings in the cellar. Jean-Louis’ door is always open, as are his bottles. His influence on the youth of the region was deeply and instantly felt in his son Justin’s inaugural release: Beaujolais “Les Bulands”.

W/ ‘Les Bulands’, grapes are picked into small bins and refrigerated before going into the vat in order to ensure the purest semi-carbonic maceration. Justin vinified his wine in a sphere-shaped fiberglass container that you turn on its axis as opposed to using a pump-over method. This is done most frequently in the final days of maceration, encouraging textural richness in the wine. All natural yeast fermentation and little or no sulfur additions. Justin adheres to his father’s cellar motto of “minimal intervention and maximum surveillance”.