TNs for Trimpi, part 3: Two 2011 Beaujolais

WINE TALK
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  • 2011 Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly - France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Côte de Brouilly (10/11/2013)
    Dark translucent ruby at the core, lightening out around the rim. A “chiseled” nose of red & black fruits.

Light-bodied, saline and tangy red fruits on the palate - hard not to like this. Don’t have a clue how it might age, but pretty tasty right now.

Smoother/rounder on the palate, but without the “oomph” of the first wine. This is my 2nd 2011 Vissoux Bojo, and for what it’s worth, neither has really floated my boat (although both were fine for casual drinking).

Posted from CellarTracker

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So for those of you who had the misfortune of reading parts 1 & 2, after being chastised by Monsieur Trimpi at a dinner a few months back for my lack of vim & vigor on the wine exploration trail, I decided to purchase a few Beaujolais to see what the fuss is all about.

Part 1 was a bottle of the 2011 Vissoux Pierreux, part 2 was the 2011 Domaine Chanrion Cote de Brouilly, and part 3 was tonight’s pair of bottles. Off this mini-look, I’d have to say that the Thivin stands out as a truly nice wine, and each of the other three had their merits.

But … and here’s the but - to put the original reason for this quest into context, my comment at dinner that night was why would I ever buy Beaujolais when I can pick up Chianti for the same price. And after four peeks at wines that seem to be at least reasonably well thought of, I really haven’t seen a need to alter my original stance. They’re all decent wines, and quite frankly the Thivin is more than decent, but I wouldn’t trade any of them for a bottle of 2009 Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva. And while you can argue that the Felsina runs about $5 more a bottle, in my mind if you can get a better wine by spending an additional $5, why wouldn’t you?

So I guess what I’m saying is while I have enjoyed my little foray into Beaujolais (and I can revisit each of these wines in the future, so maybe I change my mind at some time once they’ve had some bottle age), none of you have to worry about fighting me for your newly-released bottles of Bojo in the near future - just stay out of my Chianti aisle [cheers.gif] .

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Veni, vidi, Chianti?


RT

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In keeping with a movie theme… “That’ll do”.

RT

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Bob -

I’m glad you finally tried the Thivin as you go through this exercise. For my palate, it is the best 2011 I’ve had. That salinity you note is intoxicating. I’ve bought 18 bottles and have gone through 6, and am debating going for another case. A fantastic QPR. And it will age just fine.

The upper-end Vissoux cuvves, like Le Garants and the MaV, are dame fine too.