Jullié, Beaujolais
Domaine des Frontières was founded in 2013 by Jeremy Thien who left a 15 year career as chief of staff for members of the French parliament. Growing grapes and making wine was an old dream for Jeremy so he decided to come back to his native Beaujolais to do just that. His estate consists of 6.5 hectares (16 acres), where he produces terroir driven wines from parcels of old vines in the AOP cru of Julienas.
Julienas became as AOP in 1938, and the history of the region is rooted in Roman times. The Romans were so enamored with the wines made in the area that they named the area’s eponymous hub and a smaller satellite, Jullié, after Julius Caesar himself. Today, the region covers 600 hectares (1,483 acres) of vineyards spread over four primary villages: the main town, Juliénas, situated on a moderate rise just to the west of the Saone River, and Jullié, Emeringes and Pruzilly, which lie a bit further up the slopes to the west of the village of Juliénas.
The most defining aspect of Juliénas from a terroir perspective is the shift from the igneous-dominant slopes to the west of the zone, peppered with blue granite and diorite, to the flatter areas around the town of Juliénas, where the soils transition to schist and alluvium with pockets of sand and clay.