2009 Beaujolais - WOWSERS!!!

After reading JR’s great praise of the 2009 Beaujolais, I’ve decided to really explore this vintage.
You’ll see a lot more notes in the upcoming weeks…

All from North Berkeley Imports.

1) 2009 Domaine des Braves Regnie - 13% alcohol - $17.50
Pretty purple/crimson color. Fabulous ripe floral nose of spice, roses and dark fruits.
Luscious, hedonistic Gamay fruit of Black Cherry Liquore leading to a very long, firm, slightly tannic finish.
Great acid adds to the punch. Packed to the brim with fruit! A GREAT QPR! I bought me some. [92 pts]
2) 2009 Les Gryphees Moulin a Vent - 13% - $21.25
Nice purple/red color. Somewhat muted, exotic pineapple/coconut nose.
A somewhat leaner, structured, mineral tinged effort with some decent depth.
Raspberry/pomegranate fruit with ripe tannins. Needs time [90+ pts]
3) 2009 Jean Calot Morgon VV Cuvee Unique - 13% - $24.75
Dark purple/crimson color. Great nose of roses and violets;quite floral.
Spicy, powerful, minerally, primary chocolate cherry fruit with a very long finish of blackberries.
Has ripe tannins and good acid. This has great balance and should age like a fine Burgundy.
Kind of a blend between the above two wines with all the best aspects of each.
One of the finest Cru Beaujolais in my experience. I bought me some. [94 pts]

If these are typical from the 2009 vintage in Beaujolais, there’s a lot of fun in the near future!

TTT

Ive been really looking forward to 2009 Beaujolais. These are in stock?

They are.
And MORE!

TTT

Nice. Im really looking forward to these wines.

Since it is well known that 2009 will be a killer vintage, should we be worried that pricing might rise above $20 to $25 per bottle due to point chasers and the Asian markets?

Seriously, thanks for the notes Paul. It’s good to see the 2009’s are starting to hit the shelves just in time for fall allocations. Geesh.

Thanks for the tasting notes Paul.

Looking forward to picking up a few.

Huh. None of these sound remotely what I like from this grape. “Black Cherry Liquore”…“exotic pineapple/coconut nose”… “Dark purple/crimson color” … “primary chocolate cherry fruit with a very long finish of blackberries.”

Eh. Thanks for the notes, but this sounds like a very ripe vintage that’s rather modern in style.

FWW, the one 2009 Ive had was rich and deep but still had tons of acid and wasnt candied at all.

Well, the sampled wines were from NBI. (to be fair, they may well have changed their ways, and not every wine showed the “house style”)

That said, I’ve never had any sensation of heat or candied fruit from a des Braves Regnie, and the other descriptors on all 3 wines (floral, roses, great acid, mineral, etc) sound rather more like typical cru beaj.

After reading this seemingly ridiculous praise, I looked and found that my local wine store here had it in stock. So I picked up a bottle yesterday for $21.95 and brought it home to have with our salmon dinner.

The wine is good. REALLY good. Deep black cherry and blackberry fruit, smoke, pine forest, black pepper and allspice, with great acid and tannin structure. It continued to improve over 3 hours or so of the bottle being open. If I had tasted this double blind, I could have easily given it the 94 point score that Paul assigned it, and I probably would have picked this for a top-notch cool climate and lower alcohol style California pinot.

In fact, I would love to see this wine dropped as a ringer into a blind tasting of $50-70 Rhys, Copain, Williams-Selyem, etc. I don’t say that to diminish those wines in the least (I happily buy all three from the mailing list, or at least did until recently with W-S), but I think this could really stun some experienced tasters when the bag came off, both because it’s Beaujolais and because of the price. There is a difference in the evolutionary curve, this being a 2009 vintage wine, but if you were comparing it to 2005-2007 pinots or so, I could see this really being a shocker.

I went back and bought all the remaining bottles at the shop. This was a great recommendation. Excluding wines on clearance or some other crazy discount, this has to be one of the best QPR deals I’ve come across in years, right up there with the 2007 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine and the 2007 Copain Pinot Noir Tous Ensemble.

Anyways, a big tip of the hat to Paul.

You just can’t contain The Troll!

It’s NBI, what do you expect?

Stick with Kermit, Dressner, Weygandt and Rosenthal and you’ll be fine. I disagree with your oversimplification of the vintage. I’ve tasted a lot and a close friend just visited Beaujolais and he says its the best hes ever tasted. Freshness for me is what these wines have over any other attribute. Incredible transparency and also they are packed with fruit. Of all the wines I’ve tasted I’ve picked up none of the flavors Paul got, but then again it’s NBI, whose wines I don’t like at all. If the Beaujolais are anything like their Burgs…I’ll pass.

True, and though I’ve had a few NBI wines, they’re more modern that I usually go for. I didn’t really notice that these were NBI (yes, I missed it). Eh, off to the wine shop…

‘Cuvee Unique’ is a give-away. Still, Paul has a distinguished track record as a taster; I’d try one of these if I ran across it.

Whom does Rosenthal import in addition to Granger?

Just Granger bit the stuff is phenomenal. The small slice of Chiroubles is pure heaven, and their MAV, which seems to be a superstar in 2009, is always a lovely meaty, juicy, tannic wine, that ages incredibly well. Still have some '04. The Julienas is fine as is the BV but I go to Tete for Julienas.

Lyle,
Simple question.
Did you actually taste any of the above wines?

If you have, you have every right to disagree with me.
If you haven’t, you’re a blowhard…

TTT

Bollocks. Thanks for clearing out Hi Time (I assume), Chris. It’s my own damn fault, since I was there on Saturday and had my chance. I actually picked up this exact damn bottle while Veronica and I were chatting about the 2009 vintage. Pathetically, I had just read Paul’s notes AND posted in the thread the day before. Oh, well. Just leave some Foillard and Thevenet when they arrive, please.

OK, I have to chime in here with an admission.

I have a blind spot to Gamay. I have not tried many and generally have not enjoyed the ones I have tried. That said I have not tried hard, and it has been several years. I certainly like acidic wines, crunchy wines, and moreso over recent years. However, my recollection is that I have found Beaujolais to be both shrill and candied. One Gamay I do recall enjoying was the Domaine Verdier-Logel Côtes du Forez La Volcanique, 2005 vintage I think.

So, any advice on where I can begin? These notes above certainly sound very attractive, and maybe I just need a fresh start with an open mind? It has been awhile.

I leave the purists to comment upon how much it does or doesn’t sound from Paul’s tasting note like it exhibits the typicity of Beaujolais, but setting that specific standard for comparison aside, there was nothing the least bit modern/international/manipulated/overoaked/overripe/flabby etc. about the wine I tried.

Maybe that the color was a reddish purple rather than pale red?

Anyways, everyone has their own point of reference and styles they like, but I think very few tasters would use any of those terms above to describe that wine, unless maybe just in relation to Beaujolais or a certain style of Beaujolais.

Andrew, since when has there ever been a race to the shop to get the last bottles of Beaujolais? I only ended up with four, plus the one I drank, so you didn’t miss too much.

Eric,
See if you can get your hands on a bottle of the Coudert (Clos de la Roilette) Fleurie, a fantastic bottle of wine.