Best vintage in 50 years

Those were the words I was greeted with as I picked up this bottle of wine. I’d already heard the hype and quite honestly, how many perfect vintages are the French capable of? I mean, it started with the 2000 Bordeaux vintage, then came along again with the stratospherically priced 2005 Bordeaux, continuing with the 2007 wines from the Southern Rhone. Those are all fine and dandy, since those are “real” wines, but come on, this is Beaujolais Nouveau. It is fun juice. It costs less than $10. Most places only provide you with one option, though there are several more, only one of which have I ever seen because well, I once stocked it (it didn’t sell).

This was more of a nostalgic purchase than anything. It had been 4 years since my wife or I had tried the youngest wine on the planet for sale, the last time being at a release party put on by Java Monkey Decatur. They served it out of a miniature barrel (adding to the cutesy factor), along with providing some tastes of other Beaujolais wines so attendees could sample the gamut of wines from this region of Burgundy.

Ah yes, folks often don’t know or forget that Beaujolais is part of the more regarded and esteemed Burgundy region of France. While they grow more noble varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Burgundy, the good folks of Beaujolais grow lots of Gamay, sometimes referred to as Gamay noir. The amount of white wine produced here is negligible. The wines are distinctively fruity and higher in acid, making them fun to drink in their youth and well suited for food.

Another distinctive feature is the common use of carbonic maceration, a technique also being used by some Oregon Pinot Noir producers. You may see them refer to it as whole berry fermentation. The short of it is the whole grapes are put into a sealed environment that is pumped full of carbon dioxide, which kicks off fermentation inside the berry itself. Conventional fermentation involves crushing the grapes first, whereas this process only has some crush on the bottom of the barrel due to the weight of the clusters above. This style of wine making creates the fruitier profile and lowers the tannin content of the wine, making them easier to drink in their youth, but often lacking any long term ageability. Granted, not every producer uses this technique. Look to wines from the Beaujolais Crus of Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent for the most age-worthy of wines.

2009 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau

So, what was the wine actually like? The 2009 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau was what I expected, a straight shooting bowl of red and black fruits overlaying the typical Hubba-bubba grape bubblegum and banana flavors you expect from this particular style of wine. I drank one glass and it was good enough to wash down some delicious leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner, but I don’t see us buying any more of this now or in the future. It was $8.99 where I bought it and we finished half the bottle. For those who are curious to try it or were thinking of some for future holiday dinners, it isn’t the worst thing you could buy for the money. Get your non-wino friends to try it, they just might become converts.

No haiku for this.

Have a great Monday and remember, please leave comments, email me or share this with your friends in whichever form you like. I think the menu below will just about cover all the options. Thanks for stopping by!

For those of you who like good value wines that are easy to drink and very food friendly, do yourself a favor. The next time you are in your local wine shop, stop and browse their French section and look (or ask) for the Beaujolais. Upon your arrival, you are very likely to find two names on a lot of similarly labeled wines, Louis Jadot and Georges DuBoeuf.

The red wines are made from Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc, Gamay for short. It is a cross of Pinot noir and the ancient white variety Gouais. While it was once planted throughout Burgundy, it was perceived by the Dukes (Philippe the Bold and Philippe the Good…snicker) to be of lesser quality and they banned it. The rationale was, and I quote (thanks Wikipedia) was “The Dukes of Burgundy are known as the lords of the best wines in Christendom. We will maintain our reputation.” Snobs. The good thing was that these edicts pushed the plantings south, into soils where Gamay would thrive. All things happen for a reason, sometimes even good things for bad reasons as is the case here.

What is curious about Beaujolais is it is most famous for what is usually the worst of its wines, Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the wine released on the third Thursday of every November. DuBoeuf puts theirs in one of the loudest (as in obnoxiously colorful) and most easily recognized bottles, many of which you can still find in the discount bins at local grocery stores who bought too much of last year’s release. This wine is only a few weeks old and typically tastes like grape juice with some yeast and over-ripe bananas blended in, like you were chewing some grape Bubble Yum and then had to finish that spotted banana sitting on your kitchen counter with all the fruit flies buzzing it. Or something like that. As you can guess, I’m not a huge fan of the stuff, but hey, it is just my opinion.

What you need to look for are the wines from one of the ten crus. From north to south the Beaujolais crus are: Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly. Today’s wine is from Juliénas, named after Julius Caesar. Wines from this area are amongst the most ageable, but don’t let them go too long or they will lose their buoyancy.

Price:$11.99 at Green’s on Buford Highway.

Aromas: Strong notes of blackberry, currant and flowers.

Palate: Ripe blackberry and black raspberry fruit, but with plenty of acidity and gentle mouth-coating tannins to keep it be-bopping on the tongue. One of the things you can count on from most any Beaujolais at this early a stage is plenty of acidity. It was fresh and crisp, but with plenty of juicy fruit flavors to make it very gulpable. You have to serve this with a decent chill to it, as the last sips of the last glass were not as refreshing as when it was first poured. The one good thing was as it warmed up / was exposed to air longer, it took on more spice in the finish. My wife said pepper, which I didn’t get, but I understood what she was talking about. It was almost like a floral pepper spice thing, like what I remember magnolia blooms smelling like. This barely took time to get in the decanter and if you do decant it, make sure to keep it cool. Pop it in the fridge (if stored at room temperature) and remove about 15 minutes before you want to drink it. Too cool and it won’t be very pleasant at all.

Pairing: We had this with blackberry sauced pork chops. The chops were grilled slowly over low heat and were seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning The sauce was blackberry preserves with some soy sauce and lemon juice. You heat that up over medium heat until liquified and then add some fresh blackberries and spoon over the chops. It was awesome! The sauce and wine really complemented one another.Sides were mashed potatoes and my newest favorite green vegetable, petite green peas. Green is good.

Final word: An above average value and great food wine. The jazzy flavors were fruity, but not overly so, as the floral and peppery / spicy thing in the finish kept it interesting. This is not a new world wine, but it should appeal to anyone who has been raised on the half-n-half of California and Australian wines. Another bridge wine that is relatively easy on the wallet and adds another notch in your exploration of varietals and regions.