A very pleasing even red colour, the fruit swarms smoothly over the granite structure, this is gorgeous with a svelte yet profound covering of strawberry over the bones. Accessible early but with some extra keeping qualities. Drink from 2026-2030. Tasted Dec 2024.

The 2023 Fleurie Joie de Palais comes from a very steep slope with a 40% to 50% grade, worked exclusively by hand or horse. The wine opens with broad shoulders to reveal a lush concentration of flavors—stewed berries, plums, sweet soil, thyme and spice. The wine gains precision along the palate with its lining of fine-grained tannins that taper the fruit while simultaneously allowing its layered mid-palate to unfold. This is an elegant wine, one that needs a few years in bottle to reveal its finest, Domaine Lafarge-Vial, established by the Lafarge family in 2014, spans 6.5 hectares within Fleurie, Chiroubles and the Côte de Brouilly. The vines are farmed biodynamically under the Demeter certification. Mostly planted with old vines, the vineyards are worked with the goal of enriching the soil profiles, utilizing cover crops in the winter, 500P, 501 and herbal tea sprays. The domaine aims for refined, made-to-last Beaujolais, while still retaining the fruit's natural-born opulence. Thus, in the cellar, they opt to destem about 80% of the grapes, mostly by hand, after which the grapes undergo a two-week ambient yeast fermentation with daily pump-overs and a few punch-downs throughout. The wines are aged for 15 months in combinations of used 228- and 350-liter barrels and foudres sourced from the domaine in Volnay. The 2023s present a more polished and refined expression compared to the 2022s, exhibiting a slimmer, more dynamic profile while still capturing the beautifully lus

The 2023 Fleurie Joie du Palais, lying in pink granite soils, showed a little more reduction on the nose with blackberry, raspberry and Morello cherries. The palate is medium-bodied, fleshy and ripe with silky tannins and a slight confit finish. Delightful.(NM)