The second of two wines tasted last weekend in Montreal (the first was this lovely Albarino https://www.reddit.com/r/wine/comments/1s1souv/bodegas\_granbaz%C3%A1n\_albari%C3%B1o/).
The next bottle was a Cru Beaujolais from Brouilly in Burgundy, made from Gamay. If you have read Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers novels, Beaujolais was always the wine of the people, while the more austere and lustrous wines of Burgundy were reserved for nobles. But despite its humbler place in the hierarchy, Gamay, when properly handled by a capable winemaker, can contend with the best of them—the pompous Cardinal Richelieu didn’t know what he was missing.
As a grape, Gamay is notoriously vigorous. Left untended, vines can produce such an excess of leaves and shoots that they begin to resemble a hoarder’s basement rather than a neat and trim French vineyard, ultimately diluting flavour concentration and diminishing quality. One of the most effective correctives is soil, particularly granite. Granite is restrictive and low in fertility, forcing vines to struggle, drive roots deeper, and channel their energy into fruit rather than superfluous foliage. The result is lower yields, but higher-quality grapes.
Beaujolais also has one of the simpler classification systems among France’s AOCs (Appellation d’origine contrôlée). There are three tiers: Beaujolais AOC, Beaujolais-Villages AOC, and Cru Beaujolais. The latter comprises ten designated villages whose names may appear on the label, signaling the region’s highest quality level. These sites also tend to contain Beaujolais’ deepest deposits of granite.
One such cru is Brouilly, and the bottle I uncorked in Montreal came from Domaine Les Garçons. In the glass, the wine showed medium ruby. The nose was anything but shy, with a spry medium+ intensity and an intoxicating amalgam of red fruits ranging from cranberry and raspberry to red cherry. At four years of age, the wine was also beginning to show the first signs of development, with hints of wet leaves and forest floor.
On the palate, the winemakers’ talents revealed themselves in a triumphant balancing act between mouth-puckering high acidity and, somewhat surprisingly for Gamay, high (medium+) tannin to match. It is a testament to the grape’s versatility that it can present with such structure and maintain its charm. There was also clear (and appropriate) use of French oak, lending notes of baking spice, chocolate, and cedar. A generous finish sealed the impression of a very good, perhaps even outstanding, wine, especially at the remarkably modest price of $30 CAD.
by Harry1T6