The best thing about good Beaujolais is the texture. No other grape produces such a plush mouthfeel while keeping such freshness.
This is a lovely young wine. Complex aromas of raspberry, blackberry, red and black cherry, pepper, cinnamon and clove.
Rich and creamy from beginning to end, but with the freshness and intensity. There’s plenty of structure, but its whipped away by lush fruit. Great tension and play between all this wines components, and at the end what shines is the denseness, richness, sappiness and above all the purity of the fruit here.
This wine has been part of a shift in buying strategy, which is to load up on QPR stuff by the case. The plan is to enjoy half of a case young, and then bury the second half to age and see what happens.
I agree with you on all accounts. I am very impressed with this wine. When drinking it I actually stopped and thought: “Wait a minute, let’s take it easy, there is a lot here. Put some of this aside” I have also decided to follow the same buying strategy. I have realized that I enjoy wines like this enough and I am very happy to have a case of them.
One of my regrets is that I haven’t put away more things like this in relative volume to age. Same with things like Chinon/Saumur. From a professional perspective, I’ve always tried to try as many things as I can so I know what they’re like and can communicate with customers who might not share my palate, but as I’ve really dialed in what I like, I’m focusing more on cellaring very good wine and not just random great bottles. I’m getting priced out of more and more Burgundy (not complaining - such is life, and I’ve been fortunate to own what I own), and my current focus on “fancy” stuff has been Nebbiolo, Champagne and some North Rhone.
For me it is partly economics. I figure I can buy a case of decent beaujolais for the same price as two or maybe three bottles of a premier cru burgundy (outside of Savigny or Beaune). I realize the burgundy may be more noble and maybe intellectually stimulating, but I get an awful lot of pleasure from a beaujolais without having to worry about if I am opening it at the right time or being unhappy that I only have a few bottles of something and not wanting to waste it. Beaujolais is complex enough in the ways you describe in your first post to make me feel satisfied that I am drinking a worthwhile bottle of wine. And at some point I may be able to realize if I am drinking a Julienas or a Chenas. I haven’t gone deep in the reds in the Loire, but have a bit in whites that should age (Sancerre, Muscadet, Touraine-which may be simple, but I don’t know, I like it). I have always put aside some barolo and barbaresco, and it may be possible to do so for a few more years, but I am a bit worried. I used to think that the price point for champagne was all wrong for me, with nothing I really wanted to or could put down (either $30 something, or $120+), but now I realize there may be ways to approach it in the ways I used to approach burgundy (finding stuff from $45-$80 to put down) if I explore it a bit more than I have up until now. I guess it is still possible to view Piedmont in the same way for a little while. The other issue, as you note, is volume to age. It is nice to have a deep supply of reserves that one can call on in the future rather than a lonely bottle or two of something one is afraid to engage.
The 2009 Billards ‘Reserve du Cave’ was simply great wine a couple of months back.
I find one or two genuinely great St.Amours among the February 14th pap - so much so that 18 months ago I tried to ‘do’ a profile of the producers and vines - unfortunately climat bottling is quite rare in St.A - largely they are differentiated by ‘VV’ or (god save us!) ‘eleve en futs de chene’…
The fine climat maps that InterBeaujolais produced about 4 years ago seem to be causing some slow changes though - now there’s at least half a dozen climat St.A’s to be found - you wouldn’t have found that many 2 years ago…
I bought a case of the 2017 of this and opened one up for dinner yesterday. It was like drinking a brick. It was hard and stony and there were some red fruits, but it was difficult to get much more beyond that. Probably should have decanted it. At least the structure for something positive was there. This was my first 2017 beaujolais, apart from an enjoyable nouveau I had on release. Sorry I don’t have more to offer on it.