Chateau des Bachelards Comtesse de Vazeilles Saint-Amour 2020
Beaujolais · Saint-Amour · Gamay · red
About this wine
OK, those of you who know – I mean, REALLY know Château des Bachelards – you’re salivary glands just kicked into overdrive! 93 POINTS, BEST price on the PLANET, for some dead-serious, terrific Cru Beaujolais at the very highest level. SUNDAY FUNDAY, indeed!!! In my trusty Beaujolais field guide, I’ve marked this ICONIC estate down as one of the top two or three Beaujolais on THE PLANET! I bought two cases, then another, and here I go again. Poker nights, Bocce League, dinner parties, and beyond…a bottle of this just keeps…the…party…ROLLING! And the sheer limitless banter that follows? Might as well call it Miss Daisy – ‘cause this bottle DRIVES it each and every time I pop the cork. This has been a marathon staple for years – but those of you that know, this is your chance to snatch up the very last of this GLORIOUS gamay! CH TEAU DES BACHELARDS is the ONLY Beaujolais Château with organic AND biodynamic certifications across holdings in Fleurie, Moulin-à-vent, and Saint-Amour...and top-notch farming is just the beginning! Saint-Amour may sound all lovey-dovey but this is all brawn and power with an intensity and ageability that would rival a TOP Grand Cru Burgundy from an impeccable house. Throw in some sage winemaking advice from Stephane Derenoncourt (Pavie-Macquin, Smith Haut Lafitte, La Massa, Domaine de Chevalier, and more) – described by Decanter as "...one of the world's most sought-after consultants", and you have a recipe for something truly special! Pinot-ish in weight, but SO much more. Delightfully floral, fruit-packed, spicy, and utterly wonderful to drink – just…wow! We’ve flipped for this for years, yet each vintage seems to get more and more refined...you’re gonna LOVE it! A coveted sommelier staple for years, we discovered it in Paris some time back (at the iconic Le Meurice, no less), and we made a deal to bring this beauty back to the States for the first time ever with the 2016 vintage (I just popped a bottle the other day and WOWEEE!!! 60-110+-year-old vines that consistently make the top-rated gamays of the region every single year. The wine geek force is strong with one, and we’ve come down to the very last of this, so grab some now and come on back for more crazy-cool data points below! - Beaujolais sits atop the Northern Rhone, connecting into the south of Burgundy. Prime vineyard land that has been farmed for thousands of years! - Established in 1100 AD by Cluny Monks ("Les Bachelards" means “The Place of God” in the Gallo-Romance language d'oïl). - Some of the vineyards existing today are still the first vines planted in the area after phylloxera, planted in 1910. - Countess Alexandra de Vazeilles took over the property and made her first vintage in 2014. She trained at Château Latour in Pauillac, Domaine Roulot, and other heavy hitters before taking the helm. - No spritzy, bubble-gum, carbonic maceration here...These wines are fashioned in the same style as classic Burgundian pinot. - Situated on lower slopes of a hillside, akin to the Grand Crus of Burgundy, where pink granite, alluvial rock, and clay soils intermingle. - I once won a $100 bet by blinding a somm at a 3-star Michelin restaurant on this wine! Incredibly awesome at our price – and we’re the only one in the USA to have this 93 POINT 2020! It is UNREAL how good this is...and will drink like a champ for a decade plus! (Sidebar: pristinely aged Beaujolais is one of my greatest wine revelations!) Ok, sure hope you got some, I can’t say anything else....BEST PRICE on the PLANET! What are you waiting for?!?!
Wine details
- Producer
- Chateau
- Vintage
- 2020
- Region
- Beaujolais
- Appellation
- Saint-Amour
- Varietal
- Gamay
- Color
- red
- Winemaker
- Alexandra de Vazeilles
- Last Bottle price
- $29
- Retail price (estimate)
- $50
- Wine-Searcher average
- $36
- CellarTracker score
- 91.2 (20 reviews)
- Critic score
- 93 — James Suckling