Jean-Louis Dutraive – Grand Cour

Beaujolais, France

Photography and writing by Ted Vance.

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Short Summary

It’s never too late for a renaissance. Nearing 60, the extremely humble and hard-working vigneron, Jean-Louis Dutraive unintentionally became one of Beaujolais’ iconoclastic vignerons. Between 2010-2016 (perhaps some years prior to those as well), Jean-Louis found his own uniquely elegant style that inspired an entire generation of local growers and extended well beyond Beaujolais and France into the global wine scene. Perhaps one of Beaujolais’ most elegant appellations, Fleurie is dominated by granite soils with a broad variation of altitudes and expositions. Jean-Louis’ Fleurie vines are on softer slopes at lower altitudes with deeper sandy soils than those at higher altitudes, which make for more elegant and aromatic wines. Jean-Louis’ Brouilly is a unique wine grown on limestone, which imparts more power, color and weight when compared to his range of Fleurie wines. All vineyards are farmed naturally with EU organic certification and most of the wines are bottled with little to no added sulfites. Jean-Louis’ offspring (Ophélie, Justin and Lucas) began to take greater stylistic control of the domaine in 2017, led by his daughter, Ophélie.

Full Length Story

This extremely humble and hard-working vigneron has unintentionally become (for me) an iconoclastic vigneron within Beaujolais. He has found his own unique style of winemaking and has pushed his wines to a place that knows no equal. He has abandoned conventional farming in favor of organic many years ago and has become at one with his vines and his wines. He has come to realize and practice that with near perfect work in the vineyard of a great terroir, one must observe more and react less.

Fleurie is perhaps one of Beaujolais’ most elegant appellations. It, like the other crus of Beaujolais, is scrunched up in the north half of Beaujolais and are dominated by more the more complex soils: schist and granite. At Jean-Louis’ Fleurie vines, the soil is granite; the exception being the Brouilly, which is on limestone. The vineyards in Fleurie are spread out with quite a different elevation between 250-500 meters. The vines of Dutraive are just a short walk from the town center, which sits around 300 meters.

The climate of Beaujolais is semi-continental and is warmer than the rest of Burgundy. In fact, it is one of the warmest places in France during the summer months. Thankfully, they are the eastern foothills of the Massif Central which helps the vineyards cool down at night following hot days.