2022 Domaine Mont Bessay Julienas En Bessay Beaujolais 6pk 6x750ml

Philippe Pascal spent ten years restoring Cellier aux Moines in Givry, Burgundy — a former CEO of Moet-Hennessy who built one of the region's standout estates. After that success, he moved to Beaujolais and bought 17 acres on granite in Julienas, one of the ten Beaujolais crus. With winemaker Guillaume Marko, he switched the vineyards to organic and set out to prove what the appellation could be when farmed and vinified like serious Burgundy.

Julienas sits on granite and sandstone in the northern crus, historically known for power over finesse. Pascal and Marko are rewriting that script. En Bessay — their core bottling, blended from plots around the new winery — shows the elegance the appellation rarely delivers. Whole-cluster fermentation, native yeast, three weeks of gentle maceration, and two winters in neutral oak (not the eight-month sprint most Beaujolais gets) give the wine structure, lift, and a mineral backbone that Gamay drinkers will recognize from the best of Fleurie or Morgon.

The 2022 vintage — only the second release from the domaine — earned dual 95s from James Suckling and Forbes. Suckling called out its "terrific stony energy" and praised its purity and focus. The wine opens with wild strawberry, red currant, and violet, then moves to pluot, peach, and spiced cherry on a medium-bodied palate that dances. It's bright, minerally, and expressive now — but the tannins are refined and the structure says it'll hold.

This is Gamay for the Burgundy drinker trading down in price but not in seriousness. $59.99 for a six-pack of 95-point wine from a producer with pedigree and a winemaker raising the profile of an overlooked cru. Buy the six-pack. Chill it lightly. Pull corks now through the next three years.