This is a true clos of about eight hectares, and it's a monopole of Dutraive's. The VV (featured today) is from vines within the clos that are 30 to 70+ years old.

Dutraive compares the Grand'Cour to a Beaune in its muscle and broad-shouldered profile.

In 2009, Jean-Louis included 90% of the stems in the carbonic maceration, which gave the wine a sturdy and spicy edge aligned with the marked fruitiness from the full carbonic.

(Not that Champagne.) This well-respected climat in Fleurie hosts a bedrock of granite that's much closer to the surface than many other sites in the Cru.

Dutraive has one scant hectare of vines that are over 70 years old, and he limits the hectare's production to just 15-30 hectolitres.

The results are an elegant wine - commonly considered Dutraive's best - that Jean-Louis compares to a Chambolle-Musigny with bright, focused, precise yet silky and slightly spicy elements.

Following the guidance of Jules Chauvet, a biochemist and Beaujolais negociant who is credited as being the godfather of the natural wine movement, the “microscope group” sought to produce wines that displayed purity and honesty - the truth of the vineyard. In pursuit of this, they relied on native yeasts, minimal to no sulphur, working naturally in the vineyards, cool fermentations, restricting yields and picking late to ensure ripe fruit.

It's impossible to overemphasize how radical an idea this was in Beaujolais at the time. The norms of the region included manufactured yeasts with particular aroma signatures (bananas anyone?), pesticides, over-cropping, and chaptalization (adding sugar). These trends occurred as the region’s growers began to modernize and move away from the polyculture, instead relying on grape-growing exclusively for cash. Chauvet, who began making sulphur-free, spontaneously fermented wines in 1951, was in part trying to make wines in the non-interventionalist, old fashioned way with the aid of science. The goal was to produce the most natural, purely expressive wines possible and use science to help solve the problems and reduce the risk.

As such, Metras, Lapierre and the others in the group purchased the same device to observe their wines: the microscope. (Sulphur acts as an antiseptic amongst other things, so curtailing its use carries with it an increased risk that things can go awry in the cellar. They would meet to discuss winemaking and, of course, pull a few corks. "La group a microscope" was how the members referred to themselves.

Kermit Lynch, in his Adventures on the Wine Route, begins the chapter on Beaujolais (where Chauvet is a central figure) with the following: Beaujolais “serves to remind us of the first time that man tasted fermented grape juice and decided that it was an accident worth pursuing.” The work of Metras and the other members can be seen as a combination of two things that Lynch’s quote implies: one, to follow scientifically informed natural methods to express the absolute purity of the Gamay grape; two, to render a wine that is so lively and delicious that each sip fills you with uncomplicated joy.

In 2009 Daniel Bouland went from unknown to the guy everyone was talking about.

In no time at all, he's become one of Beaujolais' TOP producers.

That was the 2008 vintage and what brought all the attention was David Schildknecht placing one of Bouland's 2008s as THE wine of the vintage.

2008 was one of the most difficult vintages of the past decade in Beaujolais. The fact that this was Bouland's break-out vintage testifies to the estate's exacting standards.

Dutraive's 2010 Grand'Cour VV is compelling, and almost unnerving - it doesn't fit into any neat categories that I've created for Fleurie or styles of Beaujolais.Dutraive's 2010 Grand'Cour VV is compelling, and almost unnerving - it doesn't fit into any neat categories that I've created for Fleurie or styles of Beaujolais.

In Beaujolais, the 2009s came in with TREMENDOUS expectations and the region saw an unprecedented engagement by a whole new audience (a Beaujo-revolution). We saw newbies, Beaujolais fanatics and seasoned Burgundy buyers going long on the 2009s, buying them by the case-load to cellar.

Foillard is a man of many voices.

His Côte du Py is one of the monuments of Morgon. It is a powerhouse, deep and meaty with a certain sternness and structure - drink it with a fork and knife.

The elusive 3.14 is the kind of rarity NYC geeks fly to Paris just to taste; it's a complex, enigmatic Beaujolais that tastes like Gamay grown in Cornas, Gamay vines that have baked under the sun of Côte-Rôtie.

Yvon Métras makes cult Fleuries. They have a textural element, an extra and indescribable range of flavors that sets them apart from everyone else.

The constant issue with Métras is that barely any wine makes it into the country. Métras is a great winemaker; he just hates paperwork. Who doesn't sympathize?

For those of you who haven't experienced Métras, the wines are incredibly, uniquely impressive. In terms of younger Beaujolais, say in their first three or five years, Métras has given me more impressive and delicious bottles than anyone else. (Foillard would be second and Roilette demands some patience.)

If you need a Métras refresher, check out last week's offer on regular bottles (small quantities available). The abridged version goes like this: Métras' wines show an extra dimension compared to most other Beaujolais. They are meaty and savory with dark, perfumed fruits, almost moist in their ripeness and backed by an intense streak of granite minerality.

Coudert's statement has made a serious impression; his Roilette has become the cult Beaujolais.Every year, not only wine geeks, but also serious Burghounds line up to buy the Tardive.