Tasting all 10 Beaujolais crus

WINE TALK
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Have been wanting to taste all 10 Beaujolais crus side by side just for fun. Of course a single wine can’t represent an entire AOC but it’s still a fun exercise. To try for some amount of consistency based on what I could acquire easily, four of these are Henry Fessy, six are 2019, and two are Château Thivin.

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Visually - mostly they are all similar, but the Morgon stood out with the deepest color. Did not do this blind, just arranged roughly north to south. I evaluated nose on all before tasting any. Then palate on all. Then came back a final time for summary/conclusion.

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Saint Amour - Henry Fessy Saint Amour 2018
nose Red cherry, white pepper, oregano
palate Red cherry, bruised apple
overall Good

Julienas - Georges Duboeuf Chateau des Capitans 2019
nose Caramel, black cherry, plum (sweetest)
palate Black cherry, blueberry
overall Great. Fruity but herb/spice complexity too

Chenas - Piron-Lameloise Chénas Quartz 2016
nose Forest floor, mushroom, black cherry, rosemary (funkiest)
palate Over ripe / spoiling black cherry, barnyard
overall Good. More funk than fruit.

Moulin-a-Vent - Henry Fessy Moulin-a-Vent Domaine de la Pierre 2019
nose Blueberry, grape skin, banana
palate Black cherry, blueberry, tannins
overall Good. Tastes like beajo cru.

Fleurie - Henry Fessy Fleurie Chateau Des Labourons 2019
nose White grapefruit, strawberry, thyme
palate Black cherry, white grapefruit
overall Great. Fruit and tannins and balance. Could almost be a Bordeaux.

Chiroubles - Domaine De La Chapelle Des Bois Chiroubles 2019
nose Black cherry, blackberry, salinity (fruitiest)
palate Blueberry, “delice de bourgogne”
overall Good. Soft cheese flavor overwhelms.

Morgon - Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte du Py 2020
nose Black cherry, prune, cocoa powder
palate Tart red cherry, almost cranberry tartness
overall Good, a bit too tart

Régnié - Henry Fessy Régnié Château des Reyssiers 2019
nose Navel orange, blueberry, strawberry skin
palate Black cherry, orange (nice balance)
overall Good, typical cru

Brouilly - Château Thivin Brouilly Reverdon 2019
nose Red cherry, hot wax, plain custard
palate Red cherry, dusty earth
overall Good. Tart and dusty at same time

Cote de Brouilly - Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly 2020
nose Underripe blueberry, red cherry, white grapefruit
palate Underripe blueberry, red cherry (Strong sour/aciditic/funk note)
overall Ok. Least favorite, unbalanced

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Conclusions

For this tasting I liked Julienas and Fleurie best. Fleurie was more subtle and refined. Chiroubles and Cote de Brouilly were my least favorite - both seemed unbalanced. For the Chiroubles, the soft cheese note - I get this from time to time in wines and wish I could figure out what it correlates with or perhaps a better way to describe it. Although when I get soft cheese it almost always evokes specifically Delice de Bourgogne. For a while I had a working theory that it was American oak as I had found it in some Riojas, but that idea has gone out the window since. Usually I really like Morgon, and this one in particular, but that wasn’t the case here. All in all, I’m just a guy tasting some wines on a day, so have no allusions of anything profound here.

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I don’t think I’ve ever considered an under-ripe note for the '20 Thivin CdB, though I can see how you might say it is unbalanced when compared to other Beaujolais examples like the Reverdon '19 (or even to itself in different vintages). I still enjoy it and am guessing some of those more untamed elements will harmonize over time. The '19 and '20 Burgaud Cote du Py’s have also been great QPRs and are easily available at my locals.

Nice notes, and fun tasting!

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Interesting tasting, but instead of concluding you liked “Fleurie” better than “Cote de Brouilly”, I would say you preferred Labourons over Thivin… It’s hard to compare the crus when all the producers are different.

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Sure exactly - should have said explicitly “I liked this Fleurie and this Julienas better than the other 8 wines here”

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With the exception of Duboeuf, I can’t think of a producer that makes wine from all 10 crus. It’s the same thing in pretty much most regions. If one is looking to compare a broad set of appellations, one ultimately just needs to pick wines that well represents each of the particular appellations being tasted. For example, I think Foillard makes excellent Morgon, but I would likely not reach for his Fleurie if I wanted to showcase Fleurie to someone.

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I’ve been meaning to do this as a tasting. I originally had in my head to do it stylistically from lighter styled crus to more structured ones. How did you find the tasting order going north to south?

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I’m not sure you can draw too many bulletproof conclusions, but I like your style! :muscle:t2:

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I’ve had a number of these, some as different vintages though. I would put my order as:
Piron-Lameloise Chénas Quartz
Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin Brouilly Reverdon
Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte du Py

Fleurie is probably my favorite Cru though.

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An interesting idea for a tasting, and interesting to think what producers I would choose. I’m also very surprised that Thivin would taste underripe in '20. Perhaps in comparison to the others, but I’ve never had an underripe Thivin that I can recall. I do recall an '05 a few years out from vintage that was fairly shut down, that’s the closest I could come.

If I were to set up a similar tasting, in your order of consumption, with price and availability a factor in the setup, I think I’d go with:
St. Amour - Billards
Julienas - Julien or Antoine Sunier
Chenas - Yohan Lardy (or I see that Dutraive also makes one)
Moulin-a-Vent - Chermette Trois Roches (many other good options)
Fleurie - Roilette Tardive
Chiroubles - Bouland (or D. Coquolet, or Metras)
Morgon - Lapierre (or Foillard)
Regnie - Julien Sunier (or Descombes, or P. Cotton)
Brouilly - Dutraive (or Thivin, or P. Cotton)
CdB - Thivin

From recent vintages I’d choose all 2017s as first choice, then '19, and would absolutely avoid '18 and '15.

This is not to fault your method. If I was drinking them at home, alone, I’d also look for less expensive options. Those listed above are more what I’d choose for a dinner or group tasting.

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Agreed. I don’t think many producers make really top examples of even 3 or 4, let alone 10. Brun or Vissoux might cover a fair amount of ground. Maybe not the absolute benchmarks, but good representations. I simply don’t think there are all that many producers making Chenas, Chiroubles, Regnie, and especially St. Amour.

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Definitely a good point - I made a note that the Fleurie was similar to a Bordeaux in terms of balance and flavor. Then drank it alone the next day and didn’t think so at all - so that was definitely relative to the field.

Forgot to mention - all were Coravined. As it turns out Henry Fessy was a bad choice for that as they use the dense synthetic cork that won’t reseal.

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Seemed to work for me… They are all similar enough that there’s nothing too jarring like tasting a Gavi after a Napa Cab… Also I think to some degree, having some up and down could make it easier to taste what is unique than any kind of smooth linear progression. That said I also noted that many of these didn’t follow stereotypes. e.g. I didn’t note the Chiroubles as clearly lightest in body or anything like that.

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This sounds like a fun tasting, Julian. Very organized approach and concise tasting notes too. I know you don’t want people extrapolating too much from your fun exercise, but I am a bit surprised that a Thivin CdB ‘20 was your least favorite, and a DuBoeuf Julienas ‘19 showed so well. ( the DuBoeuf part, not the Julienas part)

“I’m just a guy tasting some wines on a day” :cheers:

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I have never had a wine from Fessy. Will have to fix that.

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Now that is a nice line up. Cru Beaujolais for the win.

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Indeed Deboeuf used to be the cheap way of getting a feel for the different crus, albeit they weren’t particularly good/interesting, and the 2005/6 illicit blending scandal certainly hit their reputation. Perhaps they’re back to being a valid way of sampling all on an even footing, for not much money?

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I have not had Duboeuf in many years, so I can’t comment on the quality of recent wines. Trying all crus from them would certainly be interesting. Less to fix the producer variable, and more to assess the quality of the current wines. Cru Beaujolais is overall pretty affordable, and I think one is likely to get a major quality upgrade by selecting other producers. That said, I’ll certainly keep an eye out for a bottle of Cru Bojo from Duboeuf to try a recent vintage.

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Surprised to hear that, many good and very affordable offerings! I’ve always been a fan of the Brouilly.

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Never even seen them in my usual haunts.

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No need. I have never had a wine from Fessy that I liked.

(Granted, I’ve had only a few. However, doesn’t seem like a particularly good producer based on my small sample.) A shame so many wines in this tasting were Fessy. I think many other producers would’ve fared much better!)