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 Vintage2012 Label 1 of 70 
TypeRed
ProducerGeorges Descombes
VarietyGamay
Designationn/a
Vineyardn/a
CountryFrance
RegionBurgundy
SubRegionBeaujolais
AppellationBrouilly
UPC Code(s)3765551980009

Drinking Windows and Values
Drinking window: Drink between 2014 and 2019 (based on 22 user opinions)

Community Tasting History

Community Tasting Notes (average 88.4 pts. and median of 89 pts. in 30 notes) - hiding notes with no text

 Tasted by Bonesetter on 4/11/2022 & rated 85 points: Drank too old. Would have scored higher 5 years ago (379 views)
 Tasted by aekenback on 12/1/2018 & rated 89 points: Nice and fresh beaujolais. In good shape eventhough beeing the more simple bottling from Descombes. (1128 views)
 Tasted by SteveG on 7/13/2015 & rated 89 points: From memory. This was a tasty, slightly gamy gamay. It seemed decently full-flavored alone but definitely did not stand up to our rack of lamb. (2557 views)
 Tasted by Ben H. on 4/26/2015: I've really liked all of the Descombes 2012s I've tried. They've had beautiful weight and balance. This bottle of the regular Brouilly did currently seem to be in an aromatically closed phase, though. A recent bottle of the 2012 Brouilly Vieilles Vignes was more open. (2561 views)
 Tasted by luddie on 4/9/2015 & rated 87 points: Lovely pure beaujolais, fruity rather than spicy, very drinkable. Drank 1/3 and then put the remainder in the fridge for 3 days, added inert gas after the first day. Came out undrinkable. Note to self; don´t expect minimal intervention wines to survive in the fridge after opening. (2626 views)
 Tasted by SteveG on 12/13/2014 & rated 90 points: From memory. Tasty cru Beaujolais, mature fruit with some bramble and dirt, a gamay for those who prefer darker flavors. (2606 views)
 Tasted by jrick on 6/19/2014 & rated 87 points: Fruity with blueberries and licorice. (2425 views)
 Tasted by cim96cm5 on 6/12/2014 & rated 87 points: Fresh and pure smell with sweet red berries. Taste of strawberry jam, with a hint of pepper after taste (1249 views)
 Tasted by Jeremy Holmes on 6/11/2014: Nice aromatics of stalky plant matter and sweet raspberry and cherry fruit. It is a bit 'Foillardy' with its low sulphur feel and grapey fruit profile coupled with a vinous silkiness. It is just a bit tart on the finish and has a touch of quinine bitterness, it is however an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable drink. (1339 views)
 Tasted by Vintomas on 5/7/2014 & rated 87 points: Nose with cherries, some liquorice, some flowery notes, a tiny hint of herbaceous notes; rather good fruit notes in the nose. Palate with cherries, some blueberries, good and noticeable acidity. It shows a combination of freshness and firmness, with a bit of toughness due to the acidity. Comes across as rather young, 87 p? (1274 views)
 Tasted by Finare Vinare on 5/5/2014 & rated 89 points: Descombes informal pre-release tasting: Open and charming now, with cool raspberry fruit, finnish salmiak, cinnamon, hints of grass/herbs and wet crushed granite. Light-bodied and juicy on the palate, with good acid/tannic structure and a dry peppery/salty finish. Lovely basic Brouilly - the overachiever of the three '12 Descombes tasted today. For immediate drinking and pleasure! (2186 views)
 Tasted by drwine2001 on 12/30/2013: Medium red. Intensely aromatic-berryish red fruit, incense and menthol. Light, pungent, urgent. (1041 views)
 Tasted by yofog on 12/21/2013 & rated 91 points: A little peppery and spicy. (863 views)
 Tasted by JimmyBubbles on 11/2/2013 & rated 90 points: Gamay con profundidad, fruta roja fresca, hierbas aromaticas, sandia, zumo de frutas, especias y un toque metalico inconfundible de la variedad pero aportan profundidad, lavanda.

Nariz agradable y de buena intensidad.

En boca es fresco, 13% perfectamente integrados, final jugoso, redondo y adictivo. (1259 views)
 Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine...

Professional 'Channels'
By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2014, Issue #52, A Visit With Vintages 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 At Some of My Favorite Beaujolais Estates
(Brouilly- Georges Descombes) Login and sign up and see review text.
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of View From the Cellar. (manage subscription channels)

CellarTracker Wiki Articles (login to edit | view all articles)

Gamay

Plant Robez

France

Vins de France (Office National Interprofessionnel des Vins ) | Pages Vins, Directory of French Winegrowers | French Wine (Wikipedia)

Wine Scholar Guild vintage ratings

2018 vintage: "marked by a wet spring, a superb summer and a good harvest"
2019 vintage reports
2021: "From a general standpoint, whether for white, rosé or red wines, 2021 is a year marked by quality in the Rhône Valley Vineyards. Structured, elegant, fresh and fruity will be the main keywords for this new vintage."
2022 harvest: idealwine.info | wine-searcher.com

Burgundy

Les vins de Bourgogne (Bureau interprofessionnel des vins de Bourgogne) (and in English)

Burgundy - The province of eastern France, famous for its red wines produced from Pinot Noir and its whites produced from Chardonnay. (Small of amounts of Gamay and Aligoté are still grown, although these have to be labeled differently.) The most famous part of the region is known as the Cote d'Or (the Golden Slope). It is divided into the Cote de Beaune, south of the town of Beaune (famous principally for its whites), and the Cote de Nuits, North of Beaune (home of the most famous reds). In addition, the Cote Chalonnaise and the Maconnais are important wine growing regions, although historically a clear level (or more) below the Cote d'Or. Also included by some are the regions of Chablis and Auxerrois, farther north.

Burgundy Report | Les Grands Jours de Bourgogne - na stejné téma od Heleny Baker

# 2013 Vintage Notes:
* "2013 is a vintage that 20 years ago would have been a disaster." - Will Lyons
* "low yields and highly variable reds, much better whites." - Bill Nanson
* "Virtually all wines were chaptalised, with a bit of sugar added before fermentation to increase the final alcohol level." - Jancis Robinson

# 2014 Vintage Notes:
"We have not had such splendid harvest weather for many years. This will ensure high quality (fragrant, classy and succulent are words already being used) across the board, up and down the hierarchy and well as consistently from south to north geographically apart from those vineyards ravaged by the hail at the end of June." - Clive Coates

# 2015 Vintage Notes:
"Low yields and warm weather allowed for ample ripeness, small berries and an early harvest. Quality is looking extremely fine, with some people whispering comparisons with the outstanding 2005 vintage. Acid levels in individual wines may be crucial." - Jancis Robinson

# 2017 Vintage Notes:
"Chablis suffered greatly from frost in 2017, resulting in very reduced volumes. As ever, the irony seems to be that what remains is very good quality, as it is in the Côte d’Or. Cooler nights across the region have resulted in higher-than-usual acidity, with good conditions throughout the harvest season allowing for ripe, healthy fruit." - Jancis Robinson

# 2018 Vintage Notes:
"The most successful region for red Burgundy in 2018 was the Côte de Beaune. The weather was ideal in this area, with just enough sunlight and rain to produce perfectly balanced wines naturally." - Vinfolio

Beaujolais

Vins du Beaujolais (L’Union des Vignerons du Beaujolais)

The vineyards on weinlagen-info

Wine Scholar Guild Vintage Chart & Ratings

# 2009 Vintage Notes:

"There will be a lot of absolutely delicious Beaujolais to try in 2009, as it is indeed a very good, atypically ripe and opulent vintage for Beaujolais. As others here have mentioned, the Louis-Dressner and Kermit Lynch portfolios cover many of the very best estates (with an honorable mention for importer Weygandt-Metzler), and just choosing from their strip labels is a very good jumping off point. As a quick primer, the three best Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages producers that I regularly cross paths with are the aformentioned Jean-Paul Brun and his Domaine Terres Dorées, Pierre Chermette of Domaine du Vissoux and Domaine Dupeuble from the Kermit Lynch's portfolio. I also find the Beaujolais-Villages from Joseph Drouhin consistently excellent and very classic in style and like all of this firm's Beaujolais, a completely underrated source for very top drawer Crus and B-Villages.
Amongst the Cru Beaujolais, it is important to keep in mind(again as folks have mentioned already) that certain villages tend to produce much more structured wines, and this will be very evident in a powerful vintage like 2009. In general terms, the wines from Moulin-a-Vent, Morgon and Cote de Brouilly are going to demand a bit of bottle age to really start to drink well in 2009, and these may not be the best growers to focus on when tasting through the vintage to draw your own conclusions. But in these appellations, if you keep in mind that what you are tasting is likely going to need five years of bottle age to really blossom from these crus, you cannot go wrong with Kermit Lynch's "Gang of Five" producers- Thevenet, Lapierre, Foillard, Breton are four of the five- as well as Georges Descombes and Louis et Claude Desvignes from Louis-Dressner. I also like very much the Morgons made by Louis Jadot and Joseph Drouhin for the big houses, and Jean-Paul Brun also makes a very good example of Morgon.
In Moulin-a-Vent, Louis Jadot's Chateau des Jacques makes a very good range- though always structured when young- and Bernard Diochon is excellent year in and year out. Pierre Chermette also makes superb Moulin-a-Vent and the Drouhin version is consistently exceptional. In Cote de Brouilly, the two most exciting producers are Nicole Chanrion and Chateau Thivin (both represented by Kermit Lynch). The Chanrion is usually very accessible out of the blocks for this very stony terroir (it is an extinct volcano), while the Chateau Thivin bottlings demand time and are usually tight and structured when young. Better to try the delicious straight Brouilly from Chateau Thivin if you want to drink one of their wines out of the blocks, as that never demands patience and is lovely.
In the less structured Cru villages, wines I particularly like are the aformentioned Clos de la Roilette in Fleurie (they are the Chateau Yquem of the village- though their vines are right on the Moulin-a-Vent border and the wine used to be sold as Moulin-a-Vent before the AOC went into effect, so they are a bit more structured than most Fleuries), Cedric Chignard, Jean-Paul Brun and Pierre Chermette are all very, very good sources. Domaine Diochon in Moulin-a-Vent also makes a good Fleurie, as does Joseph Drouhin. In general these will be more floral, open and sappy bottles of Beaujolais out of the blocks and they will be delicious from the get-go.
In St. Amour, Domaine des Billards makes absolutely brilliant wines and is one of my favorite producers in all of Beaujolais. In Julienas, Michel Tete is the star producer, but I also like the Drouhin bottling from here very well indeed. There are many more outstanding bottlings to be found scattered thorughout the crus and I am sure that I am forgetting several worthy estates, but this at least will give you a good "to do" list to get started with the vintage. The only '09s I have tasted thus far are the Joseph Drouhin wines, which I tasted through in Beaune in March, and they are deep, sappy and beautifully soil-driven. If all the other top estates have made wines in this style, then this is indeed going to be a very special vintage for the region. But with the wines from Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent, you may do better trying a few bottles from either the 2006 or 2007 vintage if you can find them well-stored, as these are less structured vintages and both are beginning to really drink well from these villages." - John Gilman

# 2014 Vintage Notes:

"The 2014 vintage in Beaujolais is absolutely terrific and probably, along with 2011, the best vintage in the region since 2005. The region has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the last few years, with an absolutely phenomenal vintage in 2011 (particularly for those of us who like to age our Beaujolais for several years prior to serving), one of the most difficult growing seasons in recent memory in 2012, a good, solid classic vintage in 2013, and now, again, another truly outstanding vintage in 2014." - John Gilman

"2014 [...] vintage is a return to the mineral-cracked freshness and explosive low-alcohol red fruit the cru level wines of this region are famous for but have lacked since 2010/2011 (without the potentially hard/green/diffuse/underripe character found in many 2012/2013's)." - Jon Rimmerman

"the 2014s exhibit lively berry and floral character punctuated by zesty minerality. The wines are concentrated yet not heavy, and show good structure without coming off as outsized. Many producers I visited in June described the wines as a hybrid of the 2010s and 2011s, combining the structure of the earlier vintage and the fruit intensity of the latter. As such, the 2014s, as a group, are hugely appealing right now but I have no doubt that they will reward another three to five years of aging. Many of the brawniest 2014s have the material to see them through a decade or more of life but by that point they’ll have little resemblance to most peoples’ notion of Beaujolais, so I’d advise drinking almost all of the ‘14s before they hit their tenth birthday." - Josh Raynolds

# 2015 Vintage Notes:

"Vinification will not be straightforward and the 2015 vintage will be a reflection of the quality of the winemaker." - Jean Loron

"the wines have the potential to age and evolve beautifully" - Michael Apstein

# 2016 Vintage Notes:

"a harvest of soft, amply fruity wines, though without the depth and density of the outstanding 2015 harvest." - Wine Scholar Guild

# 2017 Vintage Notes:

"Trade body InterBeaujolais has said the 2018 harvest in the region will “go down in history as a legendary vintage” alongside the likes of 2017, 2015 and 2009." - Rupert Millar

#2018 Vintage Notes:

"The heatwave of July and August led growers to anticipate rich, high-alcohol wines akin to the excellent, but atypical, 2015s. However, probably due to the reserves of groundwater accumulated prior to June 20th, the 2018s are, as a rule, fresher, with slightly higher acidity and considerably lower alcohol than their counterparts from 2015. There is, nonetheless, an appealing fleshiness or rondeur to many 2018s, which suggests they won’t keep for as long as the more mineral 2017s – which are really hitting their stride now – but makes them highly seductive from the word go.
Another interesting theme, which we encountered in wines from various domaines across different crus, is a Cabernet Franc-like leafy character towards the back of the palate, which contributes an extra degree of freshness and buvabilité." Will Heslop

Brouilly

Vineyards on weinlagen-info

 
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