Billards (Barbet), Saint-Amour Reserve, 2009 green herbs and salty finish. Unfiltered and unfined Goury uses manual harvests

Goury uses manual harvests

all crunchy red berries and floral snap

and green apple

applying minimalist philosophy to sparkling wine that historically belongs to Champagne

The trick that makes it sing is a co-fermentation with a small dose of Viognier (5 to 10 percent)

Billards (Barbet), Saint-Amour Reserve, 2009 green herbs and salty finish. Unfiltered and unfined Goury uses manual harvestsSaint Amour might have the most romantic name in Beaujolais, and Domaine des Billards makes one of its most serious versions. The five hectare estate sits on the cru's southeast mid slope, on sandstone, granite and clay, farmed traditionally without herbicides; the Gamay is vinified semi carbonic with gentle extraction. This is the Reserve bottling from 2009, a warm and generous vintage, now mature and showing the savory complexity that good cru