An age-worthy bottling with a strong sense of place! Unquestionably deft extraction on the pour is the first thing you'll notice while the nose follows with dynamic rhubarb, thyme, raspberry, and cherry over cocoa and mulberry. The entry is terroir-dominated with black tea, fresh-turned soils, and notes of black currant and huckleberry over medium+ acidity and small, perfectly integrated, velvety tannins. The finish is medium length, dry, and showcases the tannin with resonant, delicate earthy notes, making for an eminently quaffable experience - stock up, and cellar a few down. Every year the first wine of the harvest is produced in Beaujolais and rushed to Paris to be the first wine of the vintage to market. This Nouveau (New-voh) Beaujolais – a long-held tradition that still exists today – is celebrated as the first taste of the vintage, indicating and inferring what to expect. 2018 was immediately held in high regard, showing the best for the decade in the region, however 2020 captured hearts and minds instantly in the Nouveau expressions. Today’s release is our second expression of 2020 fruit from an age-worthy region with a name some of you may recognize. Lot 852 comes to us from a historic winery complete with picturesque rolling hills on the western side of the Saone River, where vineyards no younger than 30 years bask in mild temperatures and a healthy amount of sunlight daily, extracting the deepest terroir from the environs, deeply rooted in granite and blue stone soils. The milder climate in the southern Cru stretches of Beaujolais coax out firmer, more earthly-structured expressions of Gamay, and offer a great side-by-side experiment when put up against something like the Lot 851 Juliénas. Much like it’s sister Lot, this wine sees no oak for a full, natural, terroir-based expression, in all its purity. And, at 1/3 the originating winery’s ask, you’d be hard pressed to find a better, more ageable sub-$20 bottle from eastern France, anywhere.