The $12 natural gamay showdown: Lapierre vs Puzelat

Marcel Lapierre, the vigneron of Beaujolais, is a grandpappy of minimal intervention, “natural” wine. And Thierry Puzelat in the Loire is a leading, young naturalista. In fact, Puzelat has credited the beauty of Lapierre’s wines as the inspiration for choosing the path to making such wines.

Each of them made a reasonably priced gamay in the acclaimed 2009 vintage; I bought each for about $12 at Astor Wines and then tasted them head to head. Turning to the master first, (whose son Mathieu does a lot in the cellar these days), the Raisins Gaulois from the Lapierres is labeled as a mere “Vin de France,” rather than a Beaujolais (since they already make a Beaujolais). But the fruit is all from their vineyards in Morgon, just from vines less than 15 years old. The light red wine has that fun, fruitiness of gamay made with carbonic maceration while having enough structure to be more than simply thirst quenching. If you have the habit of buying Beaujolais nouveau, try this more rewarding, yet easy drinking, uncomplicated wine instead. Mathieu Lapierre writes via email that they bottled it with screw cap to emphasize that it’s a wine meant to be consumed in the relative short term.

Now the the student: Thierry Puzelat’s rendition of gamay, La Butte, is made under the Clos du Tue-Boeuf label. New this vintage, it includes estate fruit as well as some purchased fruit from Touraine, according to the wine’s American importer. Bottled under synthetic (extruded) cork, the nose is more funky than fruity and the wine is slightly darker in the glass. The wine has the characteristic gamay snap but has a more substantial finish than the Raisins Guallois. And for achieving this small but arcing finish, I give this natural gamay the edge in the $12 showdown. Try both, if you can, and share your thoughts.

3 Responses to “The $12 natural gamay showdown: Lapierre vs Puzelat”


  1. I’d love to do the head-to-head on these, but I don’t think I’d be able to find them. Any advice on a wine locating directory (or any other resource) for people outside the large metropolitan areas?


  2. Hi Jarrod,

    Unfortunately, the wines are likely made in small quantities, so they might not be at your corner store. Try searching on the internet with a site like wine-searcher.com, for example. And I know Astor (where I bought them) ships to many states (beware of excessive heat in shipment).

    Cheers,


  3. haven’t tried the Lapierre, however I did have the Puzelat wine a few nights ago and thought it a benchmark example of touraine gamay. also had the 2009 “telquel” and while it was also tasty, rather pay the small premium for the La Butte.

    Oh, and while you lucky guys in the states get to pay US$12 for the pleasure of this wine, in Australia the RRP is around A$30. This thanks to our outrageous wine taxes which are 41.9% on Australian and NZ wine, plus another 5% approx for other countries


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