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The colour is crimson that is quite deep and very bright. The nose is not shy in letting you see the great fruits of blueberry, cherry and a bit of anise. The palate takes these flavours and has great length. It starts with a fine grained set of tannins supporting blueberry, cherry and a bit of spice. The finish is a while coming and is sort of raisiny and very clean. Lurking around is a subtle fennel element that completes the package. I would love to try this again in a few years because I suspect it will age very well. It is available from International Fine Wines who tell me that few retailers were shown this but it is at quite a few top restaurants.

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I have a feeling that I bang on a bit about Beaujolais and its drinkability and it being an excellent accompaniment to a Mediterranean lunch. This post continues the tradition.

A dry and savoury nose, showing raspberries, iron filings, leather and dry stones. The palate is medium bodied and dry, and though it is perhaps a little bit rustic, it also oozes with savoury fruits, earthy spices and a raspberry tanginess. Very good length, moderately alcoholic and leaves an overall impression of a dry spiciness that complements food. No tsunami of flavours here, but that is not the point. Good stuff indeed.

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This is a Beaujolais. The front label also claims it to be a “Cuvee Speciale Vieilles Vignes”, while the back label states it to be be “Cuvee Speciale Madone Vignes Centenaires”. Quite a mouth-full.

Red cherry fruits, cranberries, spice and a touch of smoky stalk. It is also savoury and very grapey; you can taste the fresh juice and slightly chewy pop of the ripe grapes. The palate is light and fleshy, red cherries, red gummy bears, soft tannins and nice acid. It perhaps is a little watery at the moment, lacking some conviction, but it should beef up with time. And this’ll take some age I think so leave 3 years before trying again. A lovely wine.

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Aidan at Souk restaurant suggested I try this when we ate there last Thursday. It was interesting timing since it was only a few days earlier that I had tried a few 2004 Burgundies. Before I visited Burgundy and Beaujolais in 2005 a local importer told me that the 2004 Beaujolais would look thin and nowhere near as rich as those of 2003. He also suggested that the 2004 Burgundies generally handled the tricky season better. The first bottle had a low level cork issue but the replacement oozed red fruits. The aromas were classic Beaujolais without a hint of herbal or green characters. The palate showed violets, cherries with a little rose. It was soft with a firm finish and went really well with the food. Not a wine of great length but quite pleasant. Aidan tells me that it opens up after a day and lasts for several days. The price is a guess since it was $40 on the wine list.

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A lovely nose: minerally, red cherries and purple jubes. The palate is dryish, with red cherries, minerals and an almost metallic character; it is brutishly dry and slightly feral too. Fortunately the wine is transformed with food, with the red fruits complementing cured meats, cheeses and bread, and the dryness disappearing completely. A nice wine with some good structure, but cannot stand by itself.

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Yes I have been poorly, but here is a note from a few nights ago. A medium red in colour with red fruits and wet cardboard on the nose. Oh, hold on, that was the first bottle. Grrrrr.

Pop! Raspberries, red cherries, cinnamon quill, dusty spices and minerals. The palate is light in weight, somewhere between a Pinot and Rose I suppose, with raspberries again, a hint of blackberries, bubblegum, spices, dried meat and minerals. The length is pretty good and the finish is drying. There is also a bit of an acid kick that makes it food-friendly. Drink over the short term, but perhaps it will go 5 years.

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I have been flat out and hit with what friends call vintage cough. Some of them thought I needed a break and had us over for dinner with the usual masked bottles across food. I will write them up over the next few days. Suffice to say this was served blind accompanied by what turned out to be Diamond Valley Close Planted PN 2000, Epis PN 2000, Bass Phillip Premium 97 and a 2004 Vosne Romanee by Jean Tardy. I mention all these because the Beaujolais did not look out of place and was highly rated by all present. By coincidence, the next day I was offered a taste of the ‘04 at Souk restaurant who have it on pour and it looked pretty good too. The colour of this wine was bright and a hint more crimson than red. The aromas were a complex mix of cherry, violets, bit of raspberry and a hint of cinnamon style spice. The palate was very rich and long. Once again the red berry fruits with a bit of cinnamon and raspberry. A pity it was my last bottle.

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I am over my cheap Chardonnay quest, though there are still a few notes to post, and am on to Beaujolais now. Julienas is a cru appellation and lies in the hills above St Amour. It was named after Julius Caesar and was the first of the villages to be planted with vines. According to the blurb from Europa Cellars, the soil here contains a touch more clay than neighbouring St Amour, and as a result the wines are spicier, chunkier and richer, with greater ageing potential. There you go…

Red and quite grapey, dark cherry, a hint of vanilla pod, bright cherry fruit, violets and pepper, and maybe some bubblegum (I am always drawn back to that descriptor). The palate showed bright cherries and a savoury character, lightly bodied, not complicated at all, but very pleasant and savoury with a suggestion of campfire smoke. This is not a dominating wine, and it has some great savoury length. I have another bottle and given the advice above I will keep it a couple of years or more.

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A few months back Lincoln described me as a Gamayist and recently Max Allen reckons I have a Lloydian obsession with Gamay. It must be time for me to try another. Wendy and I always take 2 days off to attend the Australian Open Tennis quarter finals. This year we decided to have dinner in town between the day and night session. A great meal at a winebar that alas has no view so although they had 2001 Rousseau we decided to try a Beaujolais. As usual it was one of the best value wines on a very extensive list. We paid $55 and it was very good. The colour was the usual intense red with hint of deeper crimson. The nose was rich with violets with a summer pudding like berry mix. The palate was exactly as suggested by the nose but had lovely pinot like velvety texture and waves of nice red berry fruits. Nice length and a lovely wine that went so well with the food.

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Another wine from a Gamay tasting I ran in late November. As most know I reckon Gamay makes many Rose style wines look boring and since they are not to far away from Pinot, I like ‘em. We went to a lot of trouble to find this producer and at the time liked his wine but this bottle was a little disappointing. We normally bought 2 or 3 bottles of anything we liked and resampled a few days later before deciding on good examples to bring home. This had the classic gamay spice and plum but there seemed to be something else going on. It had nice length and as I recall, it went really well with dinner. If you visit beaujolais, search this domain out, it is based in Saint Amour.

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I had the baby brother of this wine in Canada in June and loved it. The “Prestige” is a selected wine that represents a top batch of Beaujolais produced by Duboeuf. I bought an older vintage in Brisbane a few months back but suspect it had a cork issue. This was a gift and I opened it at a tasting of Gamays I ran in Melbourne in late November. I liked the wine but it created a bit of debate. It showed oak as well as the usual gamay spice and maybe some feral elements. Yes, it had aromas of candied red cherries, red liquorice and strawberries and a tobacco leaf like oak. The palate was quite broad with red fruits, cinamon, tobacco leaf and a bit of leather. Much bigger and more complex than your average Cru Beaujolais and I reckon it would have been great with food.

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The importer, Rob Walters brought this along to one of my Gamay/Beaujolais tastings. I wasn’t keen on another of his imports but he respected my comments and was kind enough to try a Beaujolais with me. I love good wines from this area and this was a great example. I tend to have particular flavours I like in Beaujolais so when this wine was suggested by a couple of wine industry folk I was concerned but intrigued. Rob was very good to be in attendance at a tasting, that for me was unusual, it was unmasked. I wanted the styles to be clear rather than focus on reputations or which wine is best. This wine stood out in all respects. The first impression is that its a pretty wine with a mid weight palate. A bit of almond, peach along with cherry and white pepper. Great Cru Beaujolais.

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Rob also brought this along to one of my Gamay/Beaujolais tastings. This was a really good example of fine Morgon. It has classic gamay spice on the nose with a little summer berries and violets. On the palate there are flavours exactly as indicated by the aroma with some level of dustiness and a bit of white pepper. As the medicos would say, the only contraindication is a little bitterness on the back palate but a very good wine.

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OK, Linc, I’ll see your White Burgs and raise the steaks to Beef. OK, I mean Beaujolais Villages. I have run a few Gamay/Beaujolais tastings in recent times. This wine has stood out as being one of the better Beaujolais Villages wines available. Roundstone 2005 from the Yarra Valley was one of the BEST local attempts but this was the best from France. Adam from Restaurant 312 brought it along as his vote and we all agreed. It has plum, cinamon, hint of pepper and some violet florals and a little raspberry. At $45ish restaurant price for a very food friendly wine it is excellent value.

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It smells grapey, with a bit of stink, bubblegum and peppery red fruits. The palate shows sweet cherry fruits, juicy fruits with a bit of savoury spice, cinnamon, and some sweet spices too. There is quite a bit of mid palate sweetness, and umm, the finish is sweet too. It is pleasant enough, but it is not satisfying, and I would like to see the saccharine characters toned down a bit.

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Chateau Thivin is one of the better artisinal makers in Beaujolais. They make with taditional techniques including large oak storage vessels (Cuves). I had this wine alongside the 2003 from another maker to compare styles. The vintage may have been different but when I tasted the wines at our rented cottage with dinner the idea worked. However, this bottle looked quite lifted and was a bit pongy too. We shoved it into a decanter and it did breathe up over an hour to be quite nice but there was always the lifted character in the back. The Brouilly spice and florals were still there.
A pitty that nobody brings Thivin to Australia (hint to Rob/Euan et al).

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My habit of collecting wines from cellar door provides an interesting diversity to the tasting experience. This place was near Regnie, which was proving difficult to source. The vintage was outstanding and this wine provoked some debate at a tasting I ran last week. It has a very plummy nose with the barest hint of Gamay spice. The palate has plums with a little cinnamon and maybe a touch of fennel. It is long and was very good with food. I believe the maker is part of the Mommesin group which have no supplier of this wine in Australia, a pity.

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I had several gamays last Thursday to celebrate the day that Beaujolais Nouveau is released. I was meant to have several from Fleurie but have obviously been stealing too many Beaujolais from my cellar because this was the only one that I could find. It opened a little on the closed/dumb side. We had it on the table for a few hours and it breathed up really well. Lovely bright cherry flavours with floral spice and a nice texture.

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Happy Beaujolais Nouveau day everyone. On the same day across the planet the wine made from Gamay grown in Beaujolais and picked in September is released. I ran a Gamay tasting in Melbourne which was a really bad idea, traffic gridlock meant it took me nearly 3 hours to get there. Was it worth it? Well the other Duboeuf wines were but this was out of balance. The tannin was high and the fresh fruit tones were flat and it seemed ungiving. I feel that the problem is that it is air freighted in and experience shows that it gets bruised. I have a few bottles that I will report back on over the next few months.

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This is another cru Beaujolais. Light cherries and plums, a bit of cinnamon and cloves, maybe bubblegum – is that possible? Lots of nuances and interest - I am kind of surprised.; it’s like walking along an unfamiliar mountain trail and turning a corner to be greeted with the most amazing vista. On the palate, light red fruits again and spice, sweet cherries, almost medium bodied, kind of like a pinot but with more earth and savouriness and less of the pretty florals. The tannins are gentle, especially for such a hot vintage, and I suspect it is higher than 13.0%, not that it really concerns me. I can see myself drinking a lot more of this sort of wine.

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