Important Update From the Founder Read message >

Beaujolais Cru Night

Tasted October 7, 2016 by octopussy with 246 views

Introduction

Our Beaujolais group recently met again in order to taste through some younger and older bottles, try some new producers, try the most recent vintage of well-known producers, etc. As usual, we picked one white from the Mâconnais to get started and then everyone could pick one wine from a pre-selection made by our host. As two bottles were flawed, we opened one additional bottle. We weren't super lucky with the bottles we had with just two wines being really good, but that's life.

Flight 1 (7 notes)

White
2005 Domaine Roger Luquet Pouilly-Fuissé Terroir France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, Pouilly-Fuissé
87 points
Golden yellow. In the nose, green and yellow fruit, white flowers, honey, quite opulent. Almost sweet in the mouth at first, a bit of alcohol, ripe yellow apple and a bit of green apple candy, a bit diluted in the middle and quite forceful in the finish. Really quite good, well aged as well, but ultimately lacking the finesse and balance to be great.
Red
2013 Georges Descombes Fleurie Vieilles Vignes France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie
93 points
Dark crimson red. In the nose, this is very fragrant with smashed raspberries, black cherry, floral notes, this is super pure and clear and already quite complex. In the mouth, it's juicy, mouth filling, dense, but ultimately light, silky despite a certain tannic backbone. Violet and licorice notes in the very long finish that also shows some agreeable bitter notes. An excellent Fleurie which combines substance and lightness.
Red
2013 Clos de Mez Fleurie La Dot France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie
Don't know what went wrong here. Dark and dense cherry red. In the nose, this stinks of reduction and sulphur, this stink doesn't go away with air either, horse sweat and rotten eggs, just a tiny bit of fruit behind it. In the mouth, this has rough and hard tannins, aggressive acidity and seems empty in the middle. Maybe this was a bad bottle, but I'm not sure.
1 person found this helpful Comment
Red
2013 Clos de Mez Morgon Chateau Gaillard France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon
82 points
Dark cherry red. In the nose, there is a lot of reduction and sulphur, sweaty notes and quite some funk. A bit of black cherry underneath this layer of sulphur. In the mouth, it starts out quite juicy, but then there is an unpenetrable wall of tannin, it seems overextracted, the tannin is hard and tough and not fine grained. It's hard and edgy and mouth-drying and furry in the finish. This really seems way overextracted and is not much fun.
Red
2011 Domaine des Souchons Morgon Cuvée Claude Pillet France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Morgon
flawed
We sniffed and swirled and tasted and - after a while - we came to the conclusion that this is corked.
Red
2015 Jean-Louis Dutraive (Domaine de la Grand'Cour) Fleurie Champagne Cuvée Vieilles Vignes France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie
88 points
Purplish red. In the nose, this is fragrant, there's raspberry jam, floral notes, some licorice. It's almost as good as other vintages of this wine, but when it gets a little warmer, there's a LOT of alcohol. In the mouth, this has a good texture, but it's quite voluminous, not as light-bodied as other vintages of this wine, the alcohol is quite noticable, there's decently fresh acidity, but just way too much alcohol and glycerine in the finish. This is a pity, I usually love this wine, but the 2015 can't hide its 14.5% Vol. alcohol.
Red
2005 Paul Janin et Fils Moulin-à-Vent Clos du Tremblay France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Moulin-à-Vent
91 points
Cherry red. In the nose, this is quite reserved and strict, quite classic. There's black cherry, some cassis, slightly powdery fruit, oriental spices. Very elegant. In the mouth, this is velvety despite being a bit strict and almost austere again, cherry fruit, good juiciness, great spiciness in the long finish, which also has some meaty notes. Classic Moulin-à-Vent, still young, really well-crafted.

Closing

The two Clos de MEZ wines were extremely disappointing. The Fleurie still suffered from a lot of reduction, but underneath the reduction it didn't seem like a great wine either. The Morgon seemed overextracted with extremely hard tannins and not enough fruit to see the wine living through the period of time needed to tame the tannins. The Dutraive was also a bit disappointing as it didn't have the airiness it had in past vintages and seemed too heavily influenced by its high alcohol. I really liked the Descombes Fleurie VV and the Janin Clos du Tremblay showed as good as it did in the past. A classic Moulin-à-Vent.

© 2003-24 CellarTracker! LLC.

Report a Problem

Close