Favourites - Domaine les Roches Bleues

Côte de Brouilly (and Brouilly - both Beaujolais crûs)

Domaine Les Roches Bleues, 69460 Odenas Phone 04 74 03 43 11

Christiane and Dominique Lacondemine run this family domaine on the southern slope of Mont Brouilly where the vines of the Côte de Brouilly appellation grow - the Brouilly vines grow on the plains surrounding the hill.  The welcoming Lacondemines make just the two crû wines, and we met them through 3D wines who run the vineyard sharing scheme Jon joined in the early 1990s.  Now we have moved on but we still visit this domaine regularly and are delighted to buy their wines.  Both (like all red Beaujolais) are made from gamay grapes.  The Brouilly is for fairly early drinking (2-3 years) while the Côte de Brouilly keeps rather longer.  Incidentally there are 8 other Beaujolais crûs: Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles Morgon and Régnié.

A visit in 2006 (during our holiday in the Côte d’Or):  It was a quiet, sunny drive down the motorway to Belleville, and we drifted on round Mont Brouilly to a warm welcome at Domaine les Roches Bleues, where Christiane Lacondemine (her husband is Dominique) showed us round.  She was glad we'd come because she is uncertain of her English and was expecting new English 3D partners.  We had a jolly tour of the old and newer vineyards, now being planted in wider and higher rows to facilitate cultivation.  Inside, they were preparing for bottling the 2005, with huge heaps of bottles swaying across the yard in Dominique's strong arms, and the bottling lorry waiting in the road outside.  We saw the insides of the barriques coated in sediment and tartar, which has to be scraped out by crawling inside - photos of D doing so were displayed.  The tasting was wonderful, although the 02 and 03 which we tried for comparison showed how far the 04 we bought has to develop.

We visited again with friends Lilli & Per on a trip north from Lunel in March 2011.  The wines were as good as ever, and the setting again lovely in the sunshine.  Further details of this Burgundy trip in other posts over the weeks to come.