TNs: 2009 Beaujolais (Brun, Coquelet, Jadot, Lapierre, Perraud, more)

2009 Terres Dorees (JP Brun) Beaujolais Blanc
Minerals and a bit of sulfur (rubber raft) which blew off. A rounder style in comparison to the next wine. Somewhat yellow fruit driven with a touch of intriguing bitterness on the finish.

2008 Terres Dorees (JP Brun) Beaujolais Blanc
Minerals, traces of herbs, bright, crisp, lean with a squeeze of citrus and reserved yellow fruit. Sharper, livelier and much more alert compared to the 09. This is a fastball down the middle of my strike zone. Stunning value.

2009 Domaine Vissoux (Pierre-Marie Chermette) Beaujolais Rose Les Griottes
Pretty sure there was an artificial cork (didn’t observe the bottle being opened or whether the artificial cork was original). It wasn’t right. Operating under the assumption that it had been sealed by a non-cork closure, it took a few minutes to grasp…that it was corked.

2009 Terres Dorees (JP Brun) Beaujolais Rose d’Folie
A very clean soft nose only slightly suggestive of red fruit (wild strawberry). The use of a black glass would’ve lead one to believe it was white. Minerals, floral notes, food friendly acidity. Good energy. Some tasters found the fruit too lean. IMHO, the balance was excellent. A fine food friendly Rose.

2009 Marcel Lapierre Vin de France Raisins Gaulois
Surprisingly fluorescent purple color. Earth, minerals, soft wild grape aspects to the fruit. Not a trace of oak. Very bright. Soft tannins with moderate length. Simple and satisfying. Impossible to go wrong here for $12-ish.

2009 Terres Dorees (JP Brun) Beaujolais L’Ancien VV
A touch of oak up front, caught in the process of integrating with its richer structure. A trace of sauvage. Very pinot-like. Simple yet engaging enough to maintain interest. Excellent acid. Easy to quaff. Remarkable value < $15.

2009 Thierry Puzelat le Telquel VdT, Loire
Slightly pasty nose with red fruit aromas that seemed much darker in the mouth, herbs and clove/nutmeg spice. Good acid. The herbs had a bit of green-ness. Became more homogeneous with air.

2009 Coquelet Beaujolais-Villages
Mineral, herbs, purple/darker berries, nice acidity. Soft tannins. Simple and likable.

2009 Sabre Bourgogne Passetoutgrain
Compared to the previous wines, this had an overtly oaky nose with cream on the attack. Softer acid. Smooth attack. Dull. Not my cup…

2009 Perraud, Cotes dela Moliere, Cote de Poquelin sans Souffre, Beaujolais
Having been given hints about this as part of the tasting, I was half expecting something fizzy and offbeat. Wrong. Soft oak and spice, subtle minerality. The midpalate provides tasty richness and fine intensity with a nice persistent finish. Pinot like. A bit of elegance. Solid balance. Really good.

2009 Coquelet Chiroubles
While the Perraud Poquelin hinted at elegance, this was surprisingly flush with it. Mineral and earthy with touches of floral herbs. Lithe. Lovely acid. Reddish/purple fruit. Soft and persistent finish. Probably my WOTN.

2009 Perraud Cote de la Moliere, Moulin-a-Vent Sans Souffre
Sweet esters and grape bubble gum. Decent acid and minerality. Rubbing tannins. A rough and tumble relative of the Poquelin. Not really my thing, although this seems to be in need of a few years.

2009 Jadot Chateau des Jacques Clos de Rochegres Moulin-a-Vent
Reductive nose with lots of smoky meats. Some tasters found it Syrah like. Quite dark. Tight, very tannic with a bitter edge from middle through finish. A wine in need of a cold dark cellar for 3 - 5+ years prior to trying again.

RT

Thanks for the notes. We haveour own tasting on tap for Tuesday with some of these. Interesting about the Jadot. DS loved it IIRC, and I usually am a fan of his reviews.

Wow, thanks for the notes. I got a taste of the Brun Terres Dorees Morgon yesterday and quite loved it.

Thanks for the great input on this lineup.
Have really liked the '09s I’ve had, though none from your list.
Going to taste through a bunch of '09s here soon, too.
Good stuff.

Loren, I expect the Jadot will sort itself out. It was double decanted a couple of hours in advance, but 24 hours would’ve been more appropriate.

Brun looks to have had an unusually great 09 (if not the Blanc IMHO).

Perraud was totally new to me.

RT

Two of my local stores carry the “JADOT CHATEAU DES JACQUES MOULIN A VENT 2009,” which is apparently not the “Clos de Rochegres” a bottling described above.

Anyone tried that one? It got a high score from David S. at the Wine Advocate.

Clos des Rochegres is a different bottling (and it says that across the front label).

Opened a bottle of the '09 Jadot/CdJ Rochegres MaV last week, thought it was a little woody and tight. Certainly needs time, but I’m a bit worried about the oak on that (which was a lot stronger than it’s been on other Jadot Beaujolais bottlings I’ve had).

Louis Jadot produces six different bottlings of Moulin-à-Vent at Château des Jacques: Clos de Rochegrès, La Roche, Champ de Cour, Clos du Grand Corquelin, Clos Thorin, as well as the straight Moulin-à-Vent. They are very much producing all of these wines to be long-lived and give them a fairly high percentage of new oak each year (from a third up to fifty percent if my memory is correct), and IME the wood generally takes two to three years to integrate into the body of the wines. However, after three or four years of bottle age, I have found that the rather aggressive oaky component in the young wines mellows into a very attractive seasoning of cedar in what are eventually, perfectly balanced wines, which works well with the terroir and fruit tones here and does not detract at all from the complexity of the wines as they begin to blossom. I would suspect that the domaine expects all of these bottlings in a top vintage to not really hit their apogees before they have had a minimum of ten years of bottle age.

In my notes I have background information on a few of the single Clos bottlings, but not on all of them. The Clos de Rochegrès bottling hails from a parcel of vines that is from 30 to 60 years old and lies on the Fleurie-Moulin-à-Vent border (not far from Clos de la Roilette), where the granite-based soil also includes a thin layer of iron-laced sandstone which gives this topsoil a pinkish cast. This is probably the most structured of the single Clos bottlings out of the blocks. The La Roche bottling comes from a parcel right next to the windmill in the heart of Moulin-à-Vent, with the vines again from 30 to 60 years of age. It tends to be a bit more black fruity and is also very structured when young, but generally needs a bit less bottle age to become accessible than the Clos de Rochegrès.

I do not have any information in my files on where the other three single Clos bottlings (Champ de Cour, Clos du Grand Corquelin and Clos Thorin) hail from in the commune or how old are the vines in each parcel, but of the the three, Clos du Grand Corquelin seems to have more in common in terms of structure out of the blocks with the Clos de Rochegrès and La Roche and needs plenty of cellaring, while the Champ de Coeur is generally accessible a year or two earlier than these others (have not had the Clos Thorin). But all are certainly built for the long haul and in a vintage like 2009, I cannot imagine any of these five single Clos bottlings beginning to seriously drink well before their tenth birthdays. For drinking over the next five to six years, I would look for the excellent 2006 bottlings from Château des Jacques, most of which are just beginning to really come into their own now and will be fantastic wines say from 2012 out for several decades. I have not yet tasted the single Clos bottlings from Château des Jacques in 2009- only the superb blended bottling of Moulin-à-Vent- but am looking forward to sinking my teeth into them and have every intention of adding them to my cellar. But I anticipate that I will be cellaring my 2009s from Château des Jacques for at least ten to twelve years before even seriously considering opening them, as I suspect that they may well be amongst the longest-lived wines of the vintage and still be cruising along at age fifty with no problem. Whether or not I will still be cruising along witih no problem fifty years out from this vintage is a much more debatable point, but my children would not be disappointed to toast the old man with a fifty year bottle of Moulin-à-Vent in any case!

All the Best,

John

John, my local wine shops are carrying the 2009 Moulin a Vent and the 2009 Morgon from that producer, both $17. What is your recommendation on buying those and on decanting/aging needs?

Some other 09s available, if you or anyone else have thoughts pro or con on any of these:

Joseph Drouhin Morgon $15
Vergier Tour de Tanay Morgon $15
Jean Descombes Morgon $15 (Duboeuf)
Domaine de la Chaponne Morgon $13 (Duboeuf)

Thanks for all the great information.

Hi Chris,

The 2009 Moulin-a-Vent from Chateau des Jacques is excellent and a great buy at $17, but it will be better with at least a few years bottle age. It is not undrinkable now with an hour’s decanting and one can see clearly where it is headed, but it is really a wine made for some aging. I have not tasted the Morgon '09 from Jadot, but it too is probably excellent. The real steal on the list you have here is the 2009 Morgon from Joseph Doruhin- this is an absolute must buy by the case at $15 per bottle- you will shoot yourself in the future if you do not buy at least a case of this wine at this price!!! It is a great, stunning example of the vintage that should age magically for the next twenty years, but can be drunk right out of the blocks if one is under serious Beaujolais duress. Drouhin’s Cru Beaujolais are so ridiculously under-apprecitaed and under-valued in the current market, and none is better than their Morgon. I tasted this wine in Beaune at the end of March and its potential was absolutely enormous! In fact, you would be infinitely happier with two cases of this wine in the cellar, as the Drouhin Morgon '09 will clearly be one of the best wines produced from this great village in this legendary year.

Best,

John

Thanks for these terrific notes, Richard.

Curse you John, you enabler My budget is already creaking under the Beaujolais onslaught this year. Thanks for your detailed commentary.

BTW, FWIW, we had a bottle of the 06 Rochegres in the spring that knocked my socks off.

Alan Weinberg waxed rhapsodic recently on the 09 Jacques Morgan, preferring it to the MaV.

Wow, thanks for the information and the energy. I’ve always liked Drouhin as a producer anyways, so all the more reason to take your recommendation (besides avoiding ending up shooting myself).

Anyways, last night I picked up a bottle each of the Jacques Morgon and the Moulin a Vent, poured half of each bottle into a decanter, and my wife and I tried them over several hours.

At this stage, the Morgon is much more enjoyable and a wine which is likely to have a broader appeal, but both were good wines. The Morgon is darker and fuller, with a deep black cherry and beef profile. The Moulin a Vent is very high toned raspberry and cranberry, and a lot of mineral. Both have good complexity, including pleasing herb and pine notes, excellent acid structure, and both seem like they could age well – the Moulin a Vent definitely needing the age much more of the two and probably likely to have a longer life.

Disclaimer: I say all that as a newcomer to good quality Beaujolais, and from the standpoint of someone looking for good wine and good values in general but not particularly concerned with what is typical or traditional for Beaujolais itself.

Chris, people like wine for many reasons, but this seems a bit sad. Learning what is “typical” or “traditional” for a particular region is often a rich experience. More often than not you learn about a diversity of producers, practices and styles…not to mention culture, geography, geology, climate, etc. Typicity might have nothing to do with being typical (i.e.: common). How else can you recognize the standouts or make meaningful comparisons? There are many “good wines” (some considered “great”) that I don’t care for at all. It’s a labor saver to trust the critics to make your choices, but they’re no substitute for your own palate.

I too look for good wine and good values, but often enjoy the story behind the bottles as much or more.

RT

Sure, but how is he supposed to opine on whether it is traditional or typical for the category if he is a newcomer to it as he says?

Expressing an opinion/TN is not a problem, nor is qualifying that opinion/TN. Admitting not knowing what is traditional or typical is not a flaw. Indicating that he is “not particularly concerned” suggests a certain dispassion.

RT

I agree with all of that, and it’s all very well said and received. I love the story of wine as much as almost anyone. I guess what I meant to convey, besides just putting my comments into some perspective for whomever reads them, is that I don’t have a big problem with a wine lacking typicity per se. I might in a certain context (e.g. ordered an unknown pinot off a restaurant list expecting it to be typical of pinot and suitable to the salmon I ordered, but found that it was a good wine albeit one that tasted more like a syrah than a pinot).

I’ve seen several discussions on here about 09 Beaujolais which revolved around whether the wines were sufficiently like how Beaujolais is supposed to be, or whether it is too much like pinot noir or something else. What I was trying (probably poorly) to signal was that, to me, I wouldn’t necessarily have an aversion to a Beaujolais that tasted more like a good pinot noir than a good Beaujolais, at least not unless the circumstances made that undesirable (like in my example above).

By the way, I went and picked up a case of the Drouhin Morgon this morning. They had about a case and half there, but adding a case is already pretty ambitious for my overtaxed storage capabilities, so I had to draw the line there. I’m looking forward to trying one here soon.

You all are killing me. In WV, we are seeing no '09s. Also no serious Crus.

For East Coasters, Zachys has the Drouhin in now at $13.59.

Thanks, Keith. Easy purchase, and the weather is finally cool enough to take delivery of my others down in FL. Enjoying a lip-smacking 2009 Terres Dorees Fleurie right now. Wife approved! Still quite tight and tart, but smoking with some fire roasted pizza. Oodles of juicy red fruit (strawberry predominant) ready to squish out, with under-tones of cold stone. Yum.

Even cheaper with the 25% off sale at Zachys. They are practically begging you to buy it.