Well, I know where you’ve been, and can I just say, ‘it was not you, it was me?’.
My wife got me into wine 10-ish years ago, and her palate at the time was decidely new-world. And thus, that’s the world I knew. From the beginning I definitely trended more towards the restrained version of the new world. Over time I drifted a bit more to the old world, and found I loved Bordeaux and Chinon. But despite a love for restrained new-world Pinot, the handful of Burgundies and Beaujolais I tried just didn’t resonate.
Over the last 3 years though my palate has really continued shifting to the old world, though in New Orleans my access to interesting wines wasn’t great. Now that I’m in London, I’ve made a conscious descision to focus entirely on old-world wines, including becoming more familiar with Burgundy.
As part of that I was hoping to identify more ‘daily drinker’-type wines and figured maybe it was time to explore Beaujolais in earnest. I picked out maybe 7-8 different producers and have been trying one a week for the last couple of weeks.
I guess instead of saying ‘Beaujolais where have you been?’ I should so ‘Beaujolais, I’m so sorry I waited so long to fall in love with you!’.
I’ve tremendously enjoyed every one that I’ve tried. So light, delicate, refreshing. Not overly-serious but still complex enough to make me pause and think for a moment. Completely fine on their own when I want a red but not looking for something ‘profound’. And of course tremendous with food.
I realize now that some of that is due to palate shift, and some of it comes down to producer. Before I was rolling the dice whereas now I’m working with retailers whom I trust, know my palate and are making recommendations accordingly. Much higher success rate.
It’s a love affair, and one I don’t have to feel guilty about, because, SO CHEAP!