Is 2015 Cru Beaujolais ever going to settle down?

I am unabashedly a Cru Beaujolais fan. It makes up 30% of my cellar. I bought my first Cru BoJo about 10 years ago, which was the 2009 vintage, and I pretty much fell in love. Since then we have had classic vintages like 2014 and 2016. We have had hot vintages like 2018. And then there is 2015.

I popped my first 2015 back in late 2017, a Jean Foillard Cote du Py. I recall telling a friend that I felt like this wine was pissed off that I had opened it and it smacked me in the mouth for my insolence. I have popped other 2015’s here and there, but I have tried to stay away from them and let them rest.

But last night I popped a 2015 Guy Breton Regnie. And wouldn’t you know it, I was smacked in my mouth again, hard.

Is 2015 ever going to settle down and mellow out? Or should I just accept that this wine is what it is, and only open it if I feel I am deserving of some punishment?

Ian so funny you just posted this, I popped a 2015 Roilette Cuvee Tardive last night and was gonna post something similar. Actually, I started with a 2014, but it was slightly corked. Major bummer as you could tell this is an excellent wine and vintage. With all of my other 2014‘s in storage, I pulled a 2015 that was in one of my wine fridges. I pretty much thought the same thing, that these are over the top, too ripe. I can see how this is a great gateway wine to understanding Beaujolais, but for Beaujolais purists, this vintage is just too much. I feel the exact same thing about 2018 as well. And the exact same thing about the 2018 version of this one. I don’t think it is a question of settling down, I think they are what they are. I’m glad I stacked up on 14, 16 and 17 instead, and I’m now sampling 19.

To your other point, I also texted a couple of buddies lamenting that I still do not have enough Beaujolais. It’s hard to imagine a better wine to drink on a daily basis to pair with regular mid-week meals. It is a remarkably versatile grape, even works with grilled salmon and seared tuna.

Getting back to the wine, I need to make clear that this is not a bad wine. In fact it is a very good wine. It is also a very ripe wine. I can see how many people, including critics, like this wine very much. It is just not what I want out of Beaujolais or this vaunted estate. Didn’t I give you a 2018 and you thought the same thing?

Ian, what are you finding difficult about the wines at this stage? Shut down? Your post does not say the wines felt over ripe, which is the focus of Robert’s post.

Though I liked ‘16 far better than ‘15, there have been two wines I really liked from ‘15. Lapierre cuvee Camille and Metras Fleurie. The Camille in particular seems to have calmed down from release in terms of baby fat.

That said, generally if you don’t like a wine on release I don’t see a point in aging it. Yet to encounter any Beaujolais in a strong dumb phase but only have wines back to ‘14.

Completely agree about the bolded. Very little Beaujolais character to be found in these vintages, IMO, but wines which may have broad appeal regardless. Since none of this is the fault of the winemakers, I hope wines from these very ripe vintages are well liked and sell through, but they’re not for me.

I think they might. They’re big, but there’s real structure and energy in the wines. Contrast that to '18, which are also big but kind of lifeless IMO.

Sorry, I agree with Robert, the ripeness is over the top. Even 2009 and 2018, while ripe, I still enjoy them for being different. But 2015 is so far over the end of the ripe spectrum I cannot even compare it to any other year. I had hoped that with some time in the bottle they may mellow out and relax some, but the ripeness still feels like the day these were bottled.

I think so. I know I gave you the Foillard Villages bottling and you said it was most BoJo like of all the 2018’s you had tried.

Yup. The most fresh for sure!

I tend to agree on the 2015s I had so far, but producers seemed to have handled 2018 way better.

But 2015 was a top-rated vintage !

My personal vintage ranking for cru Beaujolais in the past few years is 2014, 2019, 2016, 2017, 2018, then 2015 but I have approached 2015 and 2018 carefully. But overall I feel the last decade has been fantastic for the region

Curious to everyone’s thoughts on Foillard’s Athanor, which I believe was one-off monster version of 3.14 for 2015. I have a single bottle and am not sure if/when I should try it at this point. I understand it is more of a cdp than a Beaujolais, but I love his wines and selfishly hope it will eventually come around.

What about 2020? Is it same as 2015 and 2018? I’m long on this vintage.

Funny that I say the same thing about nebbiolo!

I also have a single bottle of this wine. And I am also not sure when I should open it.

I had Athanor once last year. Very syrah like.

Can’t say I have experience beyond just one bottle from the vintage, but the 2015 Laurence et Remi Dufaitre (Domaine de Botheland) Côte de Brouilly was quite good about a month ago. I have a different frame of reference as someone who has been mostly exposed to 2018 through 2020 Cru Bojos, but it didn’t feel over the top to me.

2016 and ‘17 Roillette Tardive are both still rather surly in my experience.

I distinctly remember having the same impression with that same bottling. Not having tasted as widely as some of other posters here (yet), I have been confused by the lack of freshness of most 2018s I tried, but this thread is helping me contextualize it.

Think it just needs more time. I’m loving '09 right now.

“My wines are not for those who have bananas in the kitchen or chewing gum in their car”

Is it possible Diktat #1 was violated by OP?

I tasted the 2017 Chateau Thivin CdB off your advice and freakin’ loved that wine, buying another case or two. I dove in deep on 2018/2019 and haven’t tried them out yet, so I’m a little bummed. I wonder how soon we can decide on a vintage before going deep on the purchasing? These wines definitely are value priced and come and go quickly where I am located, unfortunately.