Domaine Anne-Sophie Dubois “L’Alchemiste”

Fleurie, cru beaujolais  |  2021

Anne-Sophie Dubois was only 25 years old when she took over this eight-hectare domaine in the heart of Fleurie, in 2007. Her parents, vignerons in Champagne, owned this property but rented it out until Anne-Sophie decided to take it over, after she completed her studies in Burgundy. She debuted with the 2010 vintage, after she had worked the soils for three years in preparation. Today, she still only vinifies 2.5 hectares, selling the rest of her fruit to a cooperative. Her farming is certified organic.

Anne-Sophie is focused on expressing fruit and finesse in her wines, rather than extraction. The fruit is hand harvested and meticulously sorted. All of her wines are made from grapes grown at her domaine. She farms organically, encouraging the growth of grasses between rows, mulching with cut shoots from dormant pruning, and occasionally using organic compost.

Her vines are between 40 and 60-plus years old, planted in granite-rich soils, which further limits yields, driving up the flavor concentration in her grapes. She harvests by hand and uses no pumps, and the wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts only. She ages the wines in tanks and older barrels only, then bottles them unfined and unfiltered.

For “L'Alchimiste," she works according to the Jayer method (Burgundy's Henri Jayer)—an approach that includes destemming instead of using whole bunches. Anne-Sophie has explained that this approach can help express differences in terroir as well as create wines with more tannin and structure.

The vines for “L’Alchimiste” are more than 40 years old and planted on the granitic soils in the lieu-dit of Les Labourons. The fruit is hand harvested and hand sorted. The grapes are 100% destemmed and fermented using native yeasts in tank. The wine is aged for about 15 months in a combination of different-sized vessels, including cement and neutral oak barrels. Bottled without fining or filtration.

The wine shows dark berry fruits, with mineral and black tea notes. Fragrant and elegant, it's a beautiful expression of Gamay.