Browse Tag

beaujolais

3.14y

Foillard 2000 Morgon Côte du Py (Beaujolais) – Mildly corked, grossly bretty, and otherwise not good. (5/09)

Foillard 2001 Morgon Côte du Py (Beaujolais) – Very bretty. Straddles the dueling worlds of Burgundy (a deep, moody complexity of berries and black trumpet mushrooms) and the Rhône (funky, sun-baked undergrowth). But I’d like it a lot more were there less stink. (5/09)

Hail fellow, well-Métras

Métras 2007 Beaujolais (Beaujolais) – Crisp, sharp, and overtly prickly. A pickled wine, but which I don’t mean there’s vinegar or dill, but rather that it bears the same relation to gamay of more restraint and elegance as a pickle does to a freshly-picked cucumber. A chill’n’quaffer, for sure. (5/09)

Chiroubles in mind

Pacalet 2005 Chiroubles (Beaujolais) – Electrified gamay. Crisp light purple fruit, zippy and zingy, with a strong charge as the dominant textural element. This is a wine that refuses to sit still. Really, really good. (4/09)

Chatelard, put out the light

Rosier “Château du Chatelard” 2006 Fleurie “Les Vieux Granits” (Beaujolais) – Cold, almost icy minerality, with a chilled blackberry boisterousness that never quite manages to escape an enveloping gauze. I’d be interested to see how this develops, because it’s a middle-tier Fleurie right now, but all that minerality would seem to have serious potential for future rocky goodness. (1/09)

Bravery & Vallières

JM Burgaud 2006 Régnié Vallières (Beaujolais) – Straightforward gamayness, light and red-pink-purple-fruited, with an engaging appeal. There’s not really much more to say. It’s good. It’s tasty. It’s highly drinkable. It’s no more than that, though. (1/09)

Defoliation

JP Brun 2006 Beaujolais Rosé “d’folie” (Beaujolais) – Sunlit berries with squirts of ripe blood orange. The wine pulses rather than flows, but it’s quite engaging amidst the peaks and troughs. (12/08)

TGV towards Marseilles

JP Brun “FRV100” (Beaujolais) – Turning sweeter, mostly because the fruit is starting to diminish. The last few bottles of this have been all over the map, which suggests to me that it’s nearing the end of its most useful period. But who knows, really? (10/08)

TGV to FRV

JP Brun “FRV100” (Beaujolais) – I would normally say that I could never get tired of drinking this, but after a summer of doing just that, I find that the persistent sticky character to the fruit is just a little enervating, and despite the unmistakable appeal to those who are having their first encounter with its charms (I’m serving this at a non-geek dinner party), I’m left a bit bereft of enchantment. This is a very fun wine, but ultimately I think the Bugey Cerdon is more compelling, perhaps because it’s just less slutty. None of this should be taken as a denouncement of the wine, which is eminently recommendable and incomparably drinkable. I’m just full of jaded ennui, and not to my credit. (10/08)

Roilette paper

Coudert “Clos de la Roilette” 2005 Fleurie (Beaujolais) – Told to bring pinot noir for a salmon dinner, I switch to this when the preparation is announced as involving green beans and tomatoes. And it works beautifully, with the food bringing out more acidity than I’ve previously noticed in this wine, yet leaving the irresistible small red berries intact. And then, in the absence of the food, there’s the long, lingering finish of surprising delicacy yet firm insistence. I have no idea what to make of this wine, other than I’m glad I have a lot of it. (10/08)

Golden chardonnay

JP Brun “Terres Dorées” 2006 Beaujolais Blanc (Beaujolais) – Elusive but enticing, which is half unusual for this wine; usually, it’s just the latter. Faceted glass, mirrored in brown earth and a clear stone fruit texture, with good structure and yet with a good deal of careful restraint. Is this slightly closed? (8/08)