St Amour is both the newest and most northerly of Beaujolais’s 10 Cru villages. The village is almost split in two with the newer part at the foot of the hill and the old village with its beautiful square and church at the top of the hill. It’s a cracking spot that has lovely views of Maconnais to the north and Beaujolais to the south. The vineyards cover this hill and are made up of south easterly facing old goblet vines on fine granite soil. The wine is soft, complex and, as the name would suggest, lovely! It’s packed with layers of attractive fruit, floral notes and most importantly a graphite freshness which brings the wine together.
Jean-Paul is a very traditional winemaker who makes food-friendly wines of serious note at Domaine Terres Dorees. There is great complexity and concentration, along with the juicy fruit associated with Beaujolais, in his wines. He achieves this with minimum intervention and steers clear of manipulating the wines via carbon maceration, thermo-vinification and yeast inoculation which have become the norm in Beaujolais. He also believes his wines taste better at lower alcohol levels so does not add extra sugar (chapitalise) to raise alcohol levels.
