The vineyards of the Beaujolais region are very hilly. They are delimited on one side by the foothills of France’s Massif Central mountain range and overlook the Saône River’s floodplain between Mâcon and Lyon. Nestled at the foot of Mont Brouilly, Château de Pierreux is one of the most beautiful residences in the Beaujolais region.

Several centuries of history have shaped this ancient 13th-century fortified house of which two towers still stand today. The castle was renovated several times over the centuries. Its vaulted cellars date back to the 17th century while the current building was erected in the 19th century.

Château de Pierreux’s 110 hectares of vines are planted in shallow, well-drained pink granitic, schistous, and siliceous soils which contain deposits of blue porphyry from the volcanic eruptions of Mont Brouilly that date back millions of years.

The estate was certified High Environmental Value (HVE) in 2020.

Planting density: 6,000 to 10,000 vines/ha
Age of the vines: 42% of the plots are over 40 years old.
Pruning: gobelet & Cordon

Work philosophy: Growing methods are decided upon vineyard by vineyard according to lutte raisonnée, an environmentally friendly approach. Everything is analysed in detail: risk of disease, the number of harmful and beneficial insects that can be found in each vineyard, the size and number of bunches of grapes per vine, problems with weeds, the health of the vines’ leaves, etc.

Working of the soil: de-earthing, scraping, hoeing between the vines.

This philosophy has 3 objectives:

100% Gamay

With a purple and brilliant color, this Brouilly gives us morello cherry, blackcurrant aromas with spices hint. The mouth, very complex, full and aromatic, reveals notes of wild strawberries, violet and grilled coffee in the final and silky tannins, on an exceptional length.

A careful sorting had to be done, upon receipt of the harvest. The grapes are destemmed to 100% and then vinified in concrete vats. We applied a slow fermentation between 22 and 28°C with 2 pumpings per day and a long maceration of 16 to 22 days, with 2 to 4 loads at the end of maceration. The oak barrels of 50hL lasted 7 months to develop the structure, smooth the tannins and allow micro oxygenation.

Appreciable from now on fruit or guard between 5 to 7 years for tasters who prefer the kirshé notes.

The sun shone on the pickers in the Beaujolais. The grapes were high in quality, to a large extent thanks to the spectacular summer sun. The fine rain that fell on 17 September allowed any plots lagging in maturity to ripen fully.