Beaujolais, France

"Bouland’s Bellevue soils are split into two cuvées—one for the sand (Sable) and one for the stones (Cailloux). These two parcels are only separated by a small track, yet, as Bouland points out, “the soil is completely different”. Terroir. Not only does the weathered sandy granite differ from the Cailloux parcel, but the slope is steeper, and the 40-50 years old vines are on a specific low-yielding rootstock called Vialla—a stock well adapted to sandy, granitic or deep argilo-siliceous soils. Tasted side-by-side, the Sable cuvée is the more giving of the two wines, with a greater width than the Cailloux bottling alongside juicer tannins. Regardless, the wine retains mouth-watering energy and finishes with suburb, pour-me-another-glass intensity - Bibendum Wine Co.