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Whither thou goest, Beaujolais Nouveau?
No less than the “King of Beaujolais,” wine producer Georges Duboeuf, proclaimed the 2009 vintage that was released last Thursday one of the best Beaujolais vintages in the last 50 years.
Maybe it was poor timing on my part, but it was hard to find the enthusiasm last Thursday when I stopped in at Arrow Wine & Spirits’ Far Hills Avenue store on the way home from work at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 19, the nouveau “release day” when wine shops around Dayton and the world cracked open the first wines of 2009 and offer samples throughout the day. At a time and place where I once found robust crowds tasting nouveaus, I found very few tasters. Has the enthusiasm for nouveau Beaujolais evaporated?
The vintage, however, mostly lived up to the hype. The 2009s across the board were more enjoyable than at least the last several vintages.
I tasted through four newly released 2009 Nouveau Beaujolais. The winner for me was the Domaine Rochette Beaujolais Villages Nouveau ($14.99), which had a touch of a tannin and tasted more like a non-nouveau Beaujolais — it’s simply good red wine.
I also liked the Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau ($14.99), which seemed to have a bit more fruit and depth than the two less expensive nouveaus, from Bouchard and Georges Duboeuf (both $10.99). Still, all four were a step up from previous vintages.
The wines are “Thanksgiving-friendly,” and widely available. If you like the nouveau style, it’s a fine year to buy — even if the nouveau hoopla itself seems to be losing steam.
Anybody else try these wines?
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Comments
By Bryan
November 26, 2009 5:28 PM | Link to this
I wish all the different Beaujolais’ were carried. All I could find were a single Nouveau and a couple of Villages. This type of wine goes perfectly with T’Giving. It has enough tartness and fruit to stand up to cranberries and enough deeper flavor to go with everything else.
By Michael
November 24, 2009 8:18 PM | Link to this
Chiefwino, you really should try the Joel Rochette. It is as real wine as Nouveau gets, full and rich on the palate. It is hand made from a small organic producer near Regnie.
By cynthia
November 24, 2009 1:26 PM | Link to this
How wonderful the individual palate is..and how wonderful that there are wines for each and every one! At Cuvee’s nouveau tasting, the consensus among the smaller than usual crowd was exactly the opposite of yours! The Duboeuf was the fave, followed by Drouhin with the Rochette taking up the third slot. But I agree that this year is better than most which makes the, I feel, too high sticker price a little easier to swallow.
By chiefwino
November 24, 2009 12:38 PM | Link to this
I wish more people would take the chance (customers, retailers, and restauranteurs) on real Beaujolais (Village, Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, etc). The soft tannins, nice fruit flavors with the right balance of acidity to go with food are always a nice value. Most big, high alcohol, high tannin monster wines are not particularly good food matches, particularly when young, and don’t get the hype/numbers from the wine press.