Cru Beaujolais

I went to my second tasting group meeting last night.  Thanks to a lack of planning on my part, my camera battery died early in the evening, but here we go:

To keep us hydrated during set-up, we had Beaujolais Blanc from Chateau du Chatelard. Round, with apple, pear and toasty notes, some of the Chardonnay vines are over 95 years old. It was killer with the Montasio (aged cow's milk from Northern Italy) I brought.

Chris and Tif prepping the bottles. You'll note we have quite a bit more wine this time around. It makes a difference when the average retail price is around $20!

We put all the wine into brown bags and we each opened bottles we had not brought, removing the cork and foil and taping the top of the bag. I picked up the bags on the way over and the bodega owner gave me 12 for $1, wondering why I didn't buy any Chateau Diana to put in them.

We broke our 12 wines into 3 flights of 4. One of our members was stuck in the country because of the snow, so we had 6 out of the 10 Crus represented.

Most of the wines had this electric magenta color. Some other commonalities we found: high acid, minerality, plenty of evidence of carbon maceration. Most of our bottles were current releases - 2009 - though we had a 2006, a 2008 and a 2002.

My favorites of the evening, in no particular order:

1. Domaine de la Chapelle des Bois Fleurie 2009.  Cherry poprocks, ruby grapefruit, orange peel, noticeable oak (in a good way).

2. Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées Moulin-a-Vent 2009.  This won’t be a surprise to any Gamay fans out there.  Perfumed, purple flowers, dark cherries, lipstick (strange, but true, and not unpleasant).

3. Clos de la Roilette Fleurie 2009.  We also had the “late harvest” version of this wine, which my companions preferred.  Structured, reminded me of eating prosciutto and figs.

4. Château du Bois de la Salle “Le Vieux Bourg” Moulin-a-Vent 2009.  Spicy cherries with cinnamon.

Interestingly enough, I brought numbers 1 and 4.  We have them on our wine list at L’Ecole.  Guess I know what I like.

I don’t have any food porn shots, but Chris came through, as usual.  Charcuterie course, seared pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes (crisped up in some fat from the pâté), pineapple crêpes with rum.

Overall, we weren’t blown away by any of the wines during the blind tasting section of the evening.  Most of the wines showed better when we brought out the charcuterie.  That said, these are value-priced wines, made with craftsmanship that show off their unique terroir.