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Sometimes I taste Beaujolais and wonder why anyone buys it and sometimes I think it’s fabulous and wonder why we don’t buy it more often. It’s a lightweight wine with very little tannin, which is ideal for lunchtimes and picnics. When you want something red, but not heavy, Beaujolais is absolutely ideal. You may have a spontaneous picnic and need wine that doesn’t need chilling. You may not carry a corkscrew around with you and most of the wines we tasted were, surprisingly, closed with a screwcap. You may just like the flavour of it.
Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape and is often made using the carbonic maceration method. This involves whole bunches being placed carefully in the fermentation tank and being covered with carbon dioxide. A conversion, rather than fermentation as such, then takes place within many of the grapes, converting the sugar to alcohol. The rest of the grapes, especially those that have been accidentally crushed, ferment in the normal way. This method gives the wine a fruity aroma, sometimes alikened to bananas or kirsch which particularly suits this grape.
We were very impressed with the wines, which might be because conditions were perfect. On a cold, stormy, winter’s night, we may have enjoyed them less. Our favourite was Marks & Spencer’s 2005, which is made by Paul Sapin and costs £4.99. It smelt, typically, of raspberry jam and the taste was smooth, dry and seamless – very pleasant indeed.
Majestic’s Georges duBoeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2005 is £5.49 or £4.66 if you buy 3, until the 28th August. It was pretty dark for Beaujolais and smelt of vanilla and damson jam. It was dry and seemed quite calming in the mouth, with some ripe, sweet fruit.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Beaujolais-Villages, which didn’t appear to have a vintage, is £5.99 and also smelt of vanilla. This is an odd smell for Beaujolais and this wine was also made by Georges duBoeuf, which implies it’s a house style. It had some texture, which made me think of oak, which is unlikely and certainly wasn’t mentioned on the label.
Our fourth favourite was from the Cave des Vignerons de Bully, 2005 and was £4.99 from Waitrose. The smell was a little disappointing but the taste was good. It had some structure but wasn’t astringent. It felt smooth in the mouth.
Radcliffe’s Beaujolais 2005, which is £5.99 or £3.99 if you buy 3, from Thresher, was pretty good, smelling of ripe fruit and white flowers, but it was very acidic. In fact, I gave the acidity high marks, but the panel as a whole didn’t rate the crispness, finding it too sharp.
Our least favourite was the cheapest, at £3.79 from Morrisons. It smelt initially of bitter cherry, but this changed to burnt toast. It tasted dry and rather dull and the flavour, like the smell, evolved until it tasted of bonfires.
Top Three
Marks & Spencer’s from Paul Sapin 2005 - £4.99
Georges duBoeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2005 – Majestic - £5.49/£4.66 until 28th Aug
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Beaujolais-Villages NV – £5.99