The kind people at Westury Communication, who have over the years, done such a fine job promoting the wines of Beaujolais in the UK, smartly arranged to scoop up the remains the samples from a comprehensive World of Fine Wine tasting and taxi them out of central London to a tasting of thirsty gamayphiles.
2015 has always been such an extreme vintage, this was a great chance to try all of the wines together.
Well, all except for Morgon. I was about to move onto that flight, when I realised I was 30 mins late for a meeting so I had to shoot out of the door. What a shame, as there is so much winemaking talent in Morgon. So, no notes on Foillard, Lapierre, etc. Guess I’ll have to buy a copy of the World of Fine Wine for those.
Conclusions:
A very heterogenous vintage. The wines can tend towards the extreme. There are some great wines, and some stinkers. 2014 is much more classical, consistant, and to my taste superior. Alcohol levels range from 13.5% to 14.8%. Whether a Beaujolais should be nearly 15% is up for discussion.
It’s a vintage where tannins and structure are very pronounced. The warm weather and thick skins have made wine that look like they will age very well indeed.
The wines are showing more stability in bottle then they did en cuvee. Last year I spoke to many French importers who were concerned about high levels of VA in the wines, I didn’t detect much in this tasting.
There were rather a lot of wines, so in the interest of brevity, I’m going to cut out the middle and focus on the best and worst, to seek / avoid accordingly.
The Best:
2015 Fleurie Anne-Sophie Dubois + 4
A new producer to me, and one I gazed lovingly at. A little toasty, but just a great structure and juicy character. Available from The Winery. A name, I’ll be looking out for in the future.
2015 Fleurie Julian Sunier +4
Sunier is one of the most accomplanished vignerons, and his wines have showed constant improvement since his first vintage (10?) – Gently toasty, more subtle than his brother’s version. Very seamless and cool.
2015 Cote-de-Brouilly Domaine Joncy +3
A new name to me, a bit reduced to begin with, but opens up to clear, deep and complex cherry notes.
2015 Regnie Guy Breton: +3
13.5% very nicely integrated, stylish and silky.
Cote-de-Brouilly Chateau Thivin +2
Not showy, but really nicely balanced, very classy wine that should age very well indeed.
2015 Brouilly Domaine Rochette + 2
At 14.5%, one of the more beefy wines, but bear’s it’s high alcohol well.
2015 St-Amour Chrisophe Pacalet +1
Honourable mention as these are very well priced wines from an appellation still in the grip of the big negociants. This tastes like Punt-e-Mes, which if you like Punt-e-Mes, is great.
The Worst:
2015 Brouilly Lapalu -3
Really pretty horrible, unbalanced, tasting both under and over-ripe and generally pretty unpleasant –
2015 Fleurie Chateau du Chatelard -5
Like a drunk departing a nightclub, this staggers all over the place and leaves an unpleasant taste in the air. Taxi!
Anything by Louis Tete. Why was I tasting their wines when I could have been on the Morgon flight. Sad!