Brun “Terres Dorées” 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau “l’Ancien Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – Idiosyncrasy can only do so much. There are some absolutes. So yes, this is Brun and the structure and force he brings to Beaujolais…but it’s still a Nouveau, with that clingy unwillingness to grow from grape to wine. The result is a little goofy, but it’s an appealing goofiness, and in smallish quantities I quite enjoy it. (5/12)
Browse Tag
beaujolais
Diet Coquelet
Coquelet 2010 Chiroubles (Beaujolais) – Sharply malic, as this wine can sometimes be, with crisp raspberries just short of what even I’d call ripe, cranberry, and (of course) apple. All nervousness and tension. I’m glad Beaujolais like this exists, but I’m also glad it’s not all like this. For the record, even this specific bottle isn’t always like this. It can gussy itself up all floral and pretty at times, though the sharpness never goes away. (3/12)
Colette. First service.
Gauthier “Domaine de Colette” 2009 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – One does not, as a rule, look to Moulin-à-Vent for early approachability. Even the circus-clown Dubœuf bottlings can be a little brutish in their (briefer than normal) youth. And 2009 is no vintage for quaffers and guzzlers, from any appellation. And yet, here is the exception to every expectation. A wine full of sines and cosines in wave form, a black pulsar of low-level red-fruited radiation, a neutron-star core of particulate minerality, and a soft, quickly-fading finish. The temptation to call it a bad wine just because it’s so obviously “wrong” is, itself, wrong; it’s not a bad wine, though I dare not ask how it arrived at this point. In fact, it’s exceedingly pleasurable. (2/12)
Vissoux me
Chermette “Domaine du Vissoux” 2008 Fleurie Poncié (Beaujolais) – Closed and weird. And I don’t discount the possibility that there’s something wrong with this bottle. (11/11)
Pause, Undo, Repeat
P·U·R 2010 Morgon Cote du Py (Beaujuolais) – Hmmm. Like half a Morgon – the brawling (for Beaujolais), muscular part – without any of the rest that makes it a complete wine. It’s chalky, angular, and void. There’s hesitation from the staff as I’m served this, hesitation as we (“we” including folks who’ve had it elsewhere, with better results) drink it, and a post-consumption questioning by the server that indicates to me none of the involved parties were entirely happy with this bottle’s performance. So I’m going to guess this is unrepresentative until presented with evidence to the contrary…especially as I can’t believe that so many of my like-palated friends have simultaneously lost said palates. (11/11)
Roilette paper
Coudert 2008 Fleurie Clos de la Roilette (Beaujolais) – Awkward, its acidity gangly and uncoordinated with body (itself tart and brilliant red). There’s some gravel, as well, but it rests in a pile in the corner, awaiting some sort of conclusion to the motion. Whether bottle-specific or a general comment on maturation, I can’t say. But this is an elbows-and-knees drinking experience. (1/12)
Breathe that Valli ères!
Burgaud 2008 Régnié Vallières (Beaujolais) – Burly, as is more or less the Burgaud house style, with its darkish minerality really showing amidst a violet-hued brew of moderately spiky fruit. As much about structure as forwardness, which is a combination of Burgaud and of age-since-release; normally I’d say this is just closing a bit, but my longer-term experiences with this bottling in other vintages lead me to think it’s just going to sit on this spot for a good number of years, then fade, scowling, into the sunset. So I’m drinking mine. (12/11)
BNPlease
JP Brun “Terres Dorées” 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau “l’Ancien Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – I’m not the first person, I think, to opine that whatever most natural (red) wines are trying to be, what they’re trying to taste like is Beaujolais Nouveau. Or rather, perhaps, some sort of paradigmatic ideal thereof. Which I don’t know if this is, but it makes a good case for itself. I’ve had more non-Nouveau-like Nouveau, by which I mean wine that tastes less like it was rushed through its fermentation and more like a straightforward Beaujolais, but the fun of the exuberant purpleness (12/11)
Yes or no?
Guillot “Ultimatum Climat” 2010 Chénas (Beaujolais) – Hard. Surprisingly hard. The hipster label design leads me to think I’m going to get some fresh, frothy, spiky, ultra-natural take on Chénas. Instead, what I get is something Brun-like in its structural geometries. It is, frankly, hard beyond my ability to enjoy it at the moment. That said, I perceive a lot of churning (albeit dark) fruit underneath the planes and angles, and I think either age or, alternatively, aggressive decanting would have helped this bottle’s showing. My fault for not allowing either, I guess. (12/11)
Cambon Ibérico
Cambon 2010 Beaujolais (Beaujolais) – Yum. I mean, I could say a lot more about this wine – its brittle cohesiveness, its chewy and somewhat surprisingly dark fruit, its vivid life – but really, “yum” gets across the essentials in a much more succinct manner. (11/11)