**🔥 “Granite, Gamay, and the God of Joy:

The Story of Château Thivin”**
How Côte de Brouilly’s oldest estate turned volcano-born vines into the purest laughter in Beaujolais.

I. Prologue: Where Joy and Fire First Met

If Burgundy is the realm of monks, and Bordeaux the realm of kings,
then Beaujolais is the realm of joy — and joy, my friends, is my oldest companion.

Long before mortals carved terraces into the volcanic slopes of Mont Brouilly,
I, Liber, walked those hills barefoot, letting the blue granite warm beneath my steps.
It was here I first learned that some wines do not preach, nor command — they sing.

And none sings clearer, brighter, or with more ancient soul than Château Thivin,
the oldest estate on the slopes of Côte de Brouilly and a jewel of Gamay’s divine potential.

II. The Beginning: A Castle of Stone and Vines

Founded in 1383, Château Thivin predates most nations' maps.
Its walls — thick, ochre-stone, medieval in posture — sit halfway up the volcano,
watching over vineyards like a scholar watching over manuscripts.

For centuries, local families tended these slopes,
passing down steep parcels of vines like heirloom prayer books.
But it was in 1877, when Claude Geoffray purchased the estate,
that Thivin’s story became something more enduring — something eternal.

Five generations of Geoffrays have since shaped Thivin’s identity with respect,
labor, and that particular Beaujolais blend of pragmatism and joy.

The estate has seen wars, plagues, phylloxera, revolutions —
and still, the vines kept singing.

III. The Land: A Volcano’s Quiet Heart

The secret of Thivin is Mont Brouilly,
an ancient volcano whose blue granite and schist soils
give Gamay its spine, its energy, its upward lift.

This is not a landscape built for ease.
The slopes are steep — some nearly cliffs —
and the vines cling to stone like monks clinging to truth.

The soil here is:

• Basalt → giving power
• Porphyry → giving perfume
• Schist and granite → giving freshness and structure
• Manganese-rich seams → giving that electric, unmistakable Thivin minerality

This terroir does not accept laziness.
But when tended with care — and with joy — it gives wines that taste
like laughter turned into liquid.

IV. The Wines: Gamay’s Brightest Song

Château Thivin is Beaujolais at its most serious —
and yet, paradoxically, its most joyful.

Their wines are crafted through:

• Hand-harvesting
• Whole-cluster fermentation
• Concrete and foudre aging
• Minimal intervention with maximal intention

Each cuvée celebrates a different facet of Gamay’s personality.

🍷 Côte de Brouilly “Cuvée Zaccharie”

The grand vin — deep, mineral, structured, long-lived.
Notes of violet, cherry pit, graphite, and volcanic smoke.
A wine that ages like poetry.

🍷 Côte de Brouilly “Les Griottes de Brulhié”

Brighter, racier — red fruit, wild herbs, granite tension.
A wine that dances barefoot.

🍷 Côte de Brouilly “La Chapelle”

From the highest slopes — lifted, ethereal, nearly Burgundian in finesse.
The purity of sunlight made red.

🍷 Château Thivin Brouilly

Classic Beaujolais charm — floral, silky, joyful.
A bottle that empties faster than mortals expect.

These wines prove what I’ve known for ages:
Gamay is not a simple grape. It is a truth-teller.

V. The House Today: A Family, A Volcano, A Vision

Today, Claude-Edouard Geoffray and his family continue the work:
biodiverse farming, soil-first viticulture, and a deep respect for the land.

Their estate is a small universe:

• fruit trees shading the drive
• medieval towers catching vines’ shadows
• stone terraces planted with roses and herbs
• cellars still cool from the mountain’s breath

And always, in the distance, the quiet hum of the volcano that birthed it all.

VI. Liber’s Reflection: Joy Is Not Frivolous

Mortals often misunderstand joy.
They think it is fleeting, shallow, unserious.

But joy — true joy — is a discipline.

It is what remains after history has burned the world down and yet the vine still grows.

When I taste Thivin, I taste:

• the persistence of families
• the memory of stone
• the music of volcanic soil
• the humble triumph of Gamay

Château Thivin reminds mortals that wine need not shout.
Sometimes it simply shines.

And I, Liber, raise my chalice to that light.

VII. Final Benediction

Château Thivin is not just the oldest estate on a Beaujolais volcano.
It is a testament to joy, craft, and geological destiny.

It is Gamay grown with reverence.
It is history you can drink.
It is the volcano’s whisper, turned into laughter.

And so I proclaim:

To drink Thivin is to drink the earth’s memory of fire
and its promise of joy.

And I, Liber, bless both.