Producer Profile: You are in for a secret this month with Maxime Troncy’s ‘Sourire au Naturel.’ This is the kind of Beaujolais we like all our Beaujolais to be: smiling. It’s in the name after all, which literally translates to “A Natural Smile.” This isn’t the secret though; what’s unique about this otherwise joyful bottling of Gamay from Beaujolais is that these are the same grapes that go into the Julien Altaber Burgundian bottlings of Gamay. This is a new arrival on our shores and a very new project in and of itself; Maxime Troncy has long been the grape grower from whom Julien Altaber has purchased his Gamay fruit. This time around, Maxime has vinified himself and bottled his own line of pretty, versatile Beaujolais with all the acidic verve of a nouveau AND somehow the kind of age-worthy more earthen breadth of a Fleurie or Morgon, for instance. His production of his own wine seems as though it was a long time coming, given he’d grown up among the vines, his parents tending 10 hectares of limestone and pink granitic slopes in Cogny, a village in the southern Beaujolais. These are the vines bequeathed to him, and those he’s rigorously tended to and moved evermore toward biodynamic cultivation. A ‘new’ project from an expert grower in Beaujolais whose wines are the perfect compliment to nearly any summer dinner you could dream up.

Vinification: 100% Gamay. Grapes are hand-harvested and fermented using wild yeasts in old oak. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with no SO2. 

Tasting: Medium-bodied with ample red fruit on the palate. The texture is soft, fleshy and round. Notes of violet, black cherry and cola. Super sharp, vibrant Gamay destined for a BBQ. Serve chilled.