Métras' Fleurie Printemps is his most direct, most feather-weight Fleurie.
While his VV and Ultime can be rich and fairly saturating, the Printemps is more incisive, more agile and more gulpable. It does all this without sacrificing any of Métras signature texture. This is Métras walking on tiptoe.
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For years, Métras' wines were not available in the U.S. The short story is that Métras made great wine, but hated paperwork. We re-introduced the wines over five years ago and it's been amazing to watch the fan club grow with each passing year. It seems really difficult for anyone to taste his wines and not seek them out.
2013 is a vintage that we really like and grow more fond of as the wines have time in the bottle. It's in a similar vein as vintages like 2007 and 2010. It's a light, nervier vintage - all the better to carry the granite minerality and floral notes of Printemps.
Printemps is Métras' young vine cuvée. Bear in mind that in Beaujolais, young vines aren't all that young. Printemps comes from vines which are the very respectable ages of 20-30 years old. There is depth and complexity here.
Not to mention Printemps comes from top sites in Fleurie: Grille-Midi and La Madone. They are prime, steep and very sunny climats situated in the sandy, pink granite soils that yield a very classically feminine style of Fleurie that's earned the title "the Queen of Beaujolais."
Métras is always difficult to find in quantity, but it took a lot of work to locate a decent amount of 2013. What's on offer today is hard to consider an outright success. I had to sneak in the offer on a Saturday after a holiday.
To order, reply to offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits