Château Thivin

Up there with the most illustrious estates in all Beaujolais, Château Thivin has been in the hands of the Geoffray family since 1877. It is today managed by Claude-Edouard Geoffray and his wife Sonja – and a more charming (not to mention talented) couple one couldn’t hope to meet. Thivin’s holdings are located primarily in Côte de Brouilly, where the vertiginous vineyards have a bluish tint from the metadiorite rock just beneath. Sept Vignes is blended from seven separate parcels encircling the volcanic Mont Brouilly. Cuvée Zaccharie is a fascinating wine: made from the fruit of the domaine’s oldest vines, it is rare example of Cru Beaujolais partly matured in new oak barrels (10% of the blend). Last but not least, the excellent, earlier-drinking Reverdon grows on a gentler, east-facing slope in the cru of Brouilly, and is raised in concrete vats.