PRODUCER: Domaine Dupeuble Père et Fils
REGION: Beaujolais, France
WINEMAKERS: Ghislaine & Stépahen Depeuble
Ancestral connections to the land run deep in France. Many families – in many different regions - have been making wines off the same vineyards for generations. Few producers embody this spirit more than the Dupeuble family, whose ancestors have been farming their 42ha plot in Beaujolais since 1512.
WINERY HISTORY
In the hamlet of Le Breuil, deep in the southern Beaujolais and perched above a narrow creek, the Domaine Dupeuble has been running almost continuously since 1512. The name of the domaine has changed just three times in its history, most recently when the last heir, Anna Asmaquer, married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. Anna’s son Paul, and her grand children Ghislaine and Stéphane Dupeuble, currently manage the domaine.
VITICULTURE & WINEMAKING
The Depuebles produce wine in a radically different way to most of their neighbours. Rather than sell to negociants or churn out sub-standard Nouveau, the family seek to produce only wines of the highest quality. This is incredibly rare today, with so much of Beaujolais produced through reliance on high yields, bags of sugar, and yeast B71 to churn out average wines that taste the same every year.
Tradition runs deep in the family, yet each generation has made its own distinct impact on the domaine. Strong and pioneering advocates of lutte raisonnée, the family farm their vines without the use of any synthetic fertilizers or chemicals. Yields are severely limited by pruning, ensuring a concentration of flavours and high-calibre fruit. The vineyards are planted almost entirely to Gamay, where the South, Southeast, and Southwest facing vineyards allow for optimal ripening. The soil is predominantly granite-and-limestone, adding a mouth-watering minerality to the wines. Thanks to their generations-long dedication to sustainability, the 50–100-year-old vines continue to produce fruit of extraordinary character. Grapes are harvested without machinery and vinified entirely without intervention or chaptalisation. The wines are fermented naturally through carbonic maceration and aged in stainless steel before being bottled unfiltered.
A rare breed in Beaujolais, the Dupeuble family produce toothsome wines of vibrant red fruit and stunning clarity. Some of the best value to be found in the entirety of Beaujolais, the wines are fresh, sapid, and quaffable; complex yet simultaneously hugely refreshing.
IN THE PRESS
"The Dupeuble Beaujolais towers majestically over every other red on the market today yet retains the quaffable ‘légèreté’ we demand from this monumental appellation. At the same time, how can one ignore its eyeball-riveting color, its super concentrated body engorged with blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, olallieberries, boysenberries, cinnamon, cherry pit, violets, petunias, red currants, black currants and graham crackers? There is there, one might say, there. Multi-layered layers of sublime simplicity, a blood-boiling aftertaste, this is a palate hummer." - Kermit Lynch
