Browse Tag

brun

Up in yer Grille

[brun fleurie grille midi]JP Brun “Terres Dorées” 2009 Fleurie Grille Midi (Beaujolais) — In contrast to a surprisingly dead regular 2009 Fleurie (probably just a bad bottle), this was singing a beautiful, jaunty little tune. Flawlessly ripe fruit, some spice, plenty of life and light. Delicious, and one of the best 2009s I’ve tasted at this stage of their lives. (9/16)

Exfoliated

[brun]JP Brun 2015 Beaujolais Rosé “Le Rosé d’Folie” (Beaujolais) — Frozen raspberry sorbet with a sun-toned patina. (5/16)

d’folie of youth

JP Brun 2011 Beaujolas Rosé “Rosé d’folie” (Beaujolais) – Candied redfruit, both crisp and gummy. It’s prettier than that, and more floral, but it’s not the best example of this wine I’ve tasted. Possibly slightly heat-tinged? There are no obvious signs, yet the freshness that usually accompanies the wine is lacking here. (8/12)

Colonel Potter

Brun “Terres Dorées” 2009 Morgon (Beaujolais) – Surprisingly open, given that from this year, site, and producer I’m expecting little other than a dense wall of go-away. Instead, there’s dusty morel and sappy blackberry, an almost shockingly nervy structure, and the promise of more insight as the glasses pass into digestive oblivion. (Well, you know what I mean….) I don’t know that it couldn’t go longer, but I do know that it’s nothing to be scared of at the moment. (6/12)

Brown-out

Brun “Terres Dorées” 2004 Beaujolais Blanc (Beaujolais) – Dead. Frankly, well past dead and into decomposition. Blame the closure. (6/12)

New & old

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)

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)

Old, really old, no really…

Brun “Terres Dorées” 2005 Beaujolais “l’Ancien Vieilles Vignes” (Beaujolais) – Muscular, but I’m not sure there’s much flesh to the musculature anymore. Or maybe this is just a really long ager, and I’m underestimating it. But I think not; Brun’s wines are always structured and strong, but I’d need convincing that this hasn’t very slightly outlived its finest years. What’s left is appealing, albeit dark and tannin-laden…more bitter earth than bright fruit…and it helps the wine’s cause if one doesn’t think of it as Beaujolais at all, but as something more in the cabernet or malbec realm. No, it’s not that firm, but it bears only a passing resemblance to even the most structured Beaujolais at the moment. Drink up? That’s my guess. That said, I’m going to hold one a while longer, just to see. (10/11)