♥ Wine Club 35: Beaujolais Trifecta

Date: February 15th, 2013

Host: Andrea

Served: Apricot and Pecan Baked Brie, Strawberry Baked Brie, Baked Artichoke Dip





Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais Nouveau

Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2012 (France), 12% alcohol, $8.99 at Otto's Wine & Spirits



Andrea says (14.5): My scores really didn't match up with Kim or Christine on "Beaujolais Trifecta Night" which surprised me. The color of this wine was a nice raspberry color. Initially I smelled the pepper/alcohol smell similar to nutmeg. Further sniffing revealed scents of strawberry jam, vanilla, and vinegar. While thin in body, I enjoyed the flavor, which to me tasted like strawberry and grape juice.



Christine says (13.5): Pretty strawberry color. Simple bouquet: some vinegar right up front, plus strawberry jam and peppercorns. Long alcohol burn on the finish. This was my first Beaujolais Nouveau. I know you're supposed to drink it right away, but I don't think February is necessarily pushing it, since you can still find it in the stores. So while I wondered about the vinegar smell, it didn't really keep me from enjoying the Beaujolais. Going back after tasting the other wines, I detected tropical fruit...was it guava? I hope we do a tropical fruit sensory experience someday!

Kim says (11): Wow. I was not expecting the points to fall this way. I guess that's what happens when the wine is slightly off in the technical categories and it rates "Ambivalent" in the subjective category. For starters, I was very impressed with the appearance of this wine... a bright, festive cranberry color without that slight brown or purple hue that wines sometimes get (although Christine made a good point- this is a Nouveau so it isn't aged and is ready to drink). But that's where the fun ends. I stuck my nose in this and my first impression was of sharp chemicals and adhesive. Underneath that, there was the tasty smell of jam or berries or fruit or... Andrea grabbed the jar of strawberry jam from her fridge. Yep, that was it! I also thought this wine was very thin, so it suffered in the category of body as well.






Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais-Villages

♥ Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais-Villages 2009 (France), 13% alcohol, $7.99 at Otto's Wine Cask

      ♥ Love love love ♥ : This wine scored 18 or higher with each of us.



Georges Dubœuf says: "For me, 2009 is the vintage of the sun- in fact, this is the best vintage of my life-time! Amazing weather means this year's Beaujolais wines are incredibly elegant and delicious. Our Beaujolais-Villages wines are sumptuous, generous and fruit forward. The Beaujolais Crus are opulent, exceptionally full-bodied and fabulous. This vintage will be talked about for years to come!"

Andrea says (18): I really enjoyed this wine! A richer, more purple, raspberry color than the Nouveau. I could smell dust, vanilla, brown sugar, cranberry and currant. I could taste strawberry jam, brown sugar and raisin. The only areas where I docked the Villages were balance and finish. Over all a delicious wine! Went well with the strawberry baked Brie.



Christine says (19.5): Darker color; more claret; pronounced miniscus. Earthy/woodsy and dark brown sugar (with molasses) smell. Slight tartness/touch of vinegary taste, brown sugar, earthy, rich mouthfeel. Also has a bit of wintergreen. Yum! Highly drinkable.

Kim says (19): A nearly perfect score, the missed point was for bouquet. Everything about this wine (for lack of a better word) was deeper than the Nouveau. Deeper color and deeper aroma... I picked up brown sugar, cloves and just for a split second, a hint of vinegar. Slightly higher in acid but still within range, and had a nice, lingering finish.

Georges Dubœuf Régnié

Georges Dubœuf Régnié 2011 (Beaujolais, France), 13% alcohol, $11.99 at Otto's Wine Cask



Andrea says (18): I enjoyed the Régnié Beaujolais nearly as much as the Villages. Even though I gave them both the same score, I definitely preferred the Villages. This had a beautiful fushia/magenta color. For the third time that night I smelled and tasted strawberry jam. This one also smelled of clove and currant. I liked the taste and thought this had the longest finish of the three but gave it a lower score on aroma.

Christine says (14.5): Very intense cranberry color with blue-violet edges. Aroma of peppercorns, spices (especially cloves) and strawberries. Tasted like peppercorns, spices, brown sugar and slight vinegar. Just OK. Not worth the price, given that the (better-tasting) Beaujolais-Villages was only 2/3 the cost. We read that Régnié is the newest Beaujolais cru and that its wines can vary depending on smaller locations inside the cru. I've really loved some other crus I've tried in the past (like Chiroubles, Moulin-à-Vent and St. Amour). I wouldn't try this cru again. That said, strawberries are a super match with Beaujolais. I especially loved the Beaujolais-Villages with the chocolate-covered strawberries.

Kim says (14): Broken heart, angry face. I knew I was getting this wine too hyped up in my head! Andy at Otto's Wine Cask was able to get this from his distributor so I had about a week to sit and get excited about it before I was able to pick it up. A gorgeous color, perfect translucence and a bright pink miniscus, I couldn't stop staring! Aroma of brown sugar, I also detected something "prickly." But for all its claims that this Régnié "defines" the Beaujolais wine region, I was expecting it to blow my mind. It didn't. 

Andrea did a great job creating a meal around these wines! There's nothing more relaxing than getting together with friends to dig into a wheel of Brie and a bottle of wine. It was a great match and there she goes again... the unexpected addition of pecans to the apricot preserves was an excellent call and although the artichoke dip clashed a bit, the evening ended on a delicious note- there really is something to be said for red wine and chocolate!

Thanks to our sensory adventure tonight, I learned quite a bit! Such as the difference between strawberries and strawberry jam; that white pepper tastes good but smells bad; that bay leaves smell phenomenal! That the stretch from coriander to cilantro isn't such a huge leap after all; that currants taste better than raisins; that cloves and allspice have their own distinct aroma (and bring to mind different seasons); that I really have to focus in order to tell the difference between vanilla and brown sugar. I definitely expanded my "olfactory vocabulary" tonight!

At the last minute, Christine decided to bring some edible flowers to our sensory experiment and another mystery has been solved! I have several different kinds of "musty" descriptions- musty basement, musty mold, musty rot... well, you get the idea. And then there's the musty but not in a bad way designation. Well this is it! Not the light, sweet and fresh scent you normally associate with flowers but the earthy, organic, down-to-business part of it. It makes me think of woodlands, thick forest, and it somehow smells like life. So now I know... musty but not in a bad way is flowers!