Roilette's Griffe du Marquis made its debut in the ripe 2009, and in its first release, it was a star of the vintage.

In 2017, another ripe vintage, it's also a top wine.

It's been four years since our last Griffe du Marquis offer. The 2017 is such an impressive edition of this wine that it demanded an offering.

If you're looking for sternly mineral and long-aging Beaujolais, Roilette is the place to look. Few Beaujolais come close to Roilette in terms of aging or transformation in the cellar.

As I mentioned earlier, 2009 was the first vintage for Griffe du Marquis. The wine is sourced from the same two parcels of eighty-year-old vines bordering Moulin-à-Vent that go into Tardive. The only difference is that Griffe du Marquis spends time in old Burgundy barrels instead of the larger foudre that Tardive is briefly aged in. There's a long history of aging Beaujolais in old Burgundy barrels, and the wine is Alain Coudert's exploration of this tradition.

Roilette's Tardive has no problem aging 10-20 years. Now that we've had time to track Griffe du Marquis for a number of vintages, it seems clear that it is also a "long-haul" Beaujolais. One of the striking differences between Tardive and Griffe du Marquis is the latter shows a little more finesse and lift.

The 2017 vintage in Beaujolais is powerful and packed with mineral-accented complexity. The vintage was less extreme than 2015 and 2009, but the vintage is a relatively ripe one. This gives the 2017 Griffe du Marquis an astonishing scale and resonance.

Roilette's 2017 Griffe du Marquis is a stunning vintage for the wine. It has everything in place to age beautifully - dense, mineral-laden power, and harmony. There’s gorgeous gripping length, and for all of its intensity, the wine is buoyed by elegance.

We strongly advise you to take advantage of the special 4-pack pricing. Even in the context of Roilette, this has all the markings of a distance runner.

To order, email offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.

Joe Salamone

Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits

2017 Roilette Fleurie Griffe du Marquis

Special Bottle Price: $39.95

Josh Raynolds, Vinous Media: "Lurid ruby. A suave, spice-accented bouquet evokes ripe red/blue fruits and incense, and a smoky mineral flourish adds urgency and lift. Chewy, focused and appealingly sweet, offering densely packed black raspberry, boysenberry and violet pastille flavors that open up slowly with aeration. Shows very good heft, but there's distinct elegance here as well. Closes sappy, youthfully tannic and extremely long, leaving a sexy floral note behind."

Special 4-Pack Price: $147.80 ($36.95/btl)