Fessy Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau

Here are my tasting notes:

Color:
Deep cranberry red, slightly translucent

Aroma:
Maybe the color influenced me, but I thought I detected cranberry. There was a Hi-C / Kool Aid type smell.

Taste:
Almost no fruit. The wine seemed closed straight from the bottle. I couldn't detect flavor until I had swallowed. I could begin to taste the wine after it was in my glass about 45 minutes. My best description is "gamay."

Finish:
Slight tanic feel. The flavor of the wine seem more present in the finish than when it was in my mouth.

Overall, I was disappointed with this wine. The wine may have done better if I had decanted it for half and hour before drinking, as it seemed to open up a little after a while. The 13.5% alcohol level seemed right, but the lack of much flavor was the biggest impression the wine gave.

I tasted the Bouchard Aine Beaujolais Nouveau yesterday along with the Fessy. The Bouchard was sweeter and the Fessy in the store seemed more flavorful than the one I drank last night. Maybe it was that I had tried the sweeter wine first or that they had had their wines open longer, but the Fessy seemed better at the store yesterday!

I'm going to have to taste the Fessy over several nights and see if my impression changes. Now I want to get the Bouchard and see if it is what made the difference in the tasting.

The Beaujolais Nouveau is such a young wine, it's hard to expect much from it. If I had it with a meal, though, I think I'd be disappointed because there is hardly any flavor. One interesting thing: I've never seen such a pristine cork in a bottle of wine. I wonder how many days (as opposed to months or years) the cork had been in the bottle before I popped it!

Beaujolais Nouveau Time!

Look at the cool card I got from http://www.beaujolais.com/!

I did send this card to myself, bit it was still fun to get. I have received several emails this week announcing the arrival of this year’s version of the Gamay Noir grapes most hyped wine.

Gamay Noir is the official name for this main grape of France’s Beaujolais region. These grapevines bud early, flower early and ripen from early to mid-season (they lend themselves to making the first wine of the harvest.) The clusters and berries of Gamay Noir are large and it is a relatively easy variety to pick, with relatively thin but tough skins.

The wines made from Gamay Noir are light in color. Don’t miss out on sniffing these wines, as they can be very fragrant, full of fruit and flowers. You often get a taste of sour cherries, especially in the finish. These wines have more tanginess then tannins.

I picked up two wines made from Gamay Noir during my lunchtime and I’ll be sampling them tonight (look for my first tasting notes tomorrow!) The first bottle is the 2007 Beaujolais Nouveau from Henry Fessy ($14.99 at BevMo.) To get an older impression of what this grape has to offer, I picked up a 2005 Chateau De La Chaize Brouilly ($13.99.) In episode 241 of WineLibrary TV, Gary Vaynerchuk reviewed several Beaujolais wines and challenged us to try them out. I couldn’t find any of the wines he sampled, but I hope the de la Chaize is a good substitute. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

I learned an interesting fact while researching today’s post. The Gamay Beaujolais wine has disappeared from the United States this year! Actually, the grape Valdiguié grown in the USA was mistakenly called Gamay Noir. Wines made from it were labeled Gamay Beaujolais. But that all ended in April (see full story at Professional Friends of Wine.)

If you have a favorite wine made from Gamay Noir leave a comment. Have you tried the 2007 Beaujolais Nouveau? Give us your impression in the comment section!