Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2012

Beefy George has a cherry finish.
Oh, Georges.  It's not you, it's me.  No, maybe it's you.

I'm just not that into you.

I remember liking Beaujolais before, so I was really bummed by this wine.  It tastes like someone melted a Luden's cherry cough drop into it.  After a long day of grading some pretty mediocre essays, I was hoping for some cheering up from you, Beefy George!

But maybe it is me; or rather, my palate.  See, the last time I remember drinking Beaujolais, I was out in Jersey City having dinner at this awesome French BYO.  Therese and I were plowing through the bottles we'd brought with us, when the women at the next table offered us their bottle of Louis Jadot.

"We opened the bottle, but we have to drive.  Do you want it?"

Hell, yeah!  Twist my arm, why don't you?  We're walking home, anyway.

I remember thinking it was awesome.  I remember thinking everything was awesome.  It was just one of those nights.  But who knows?  Maybe my palate was shot.  (I once followed a wine trail and visited five wineries in one day.  I came home with dessert wine because that's all I could taste after a while.)  Maybe after all the wine, and the bouillabaisse, and the mousse, I couldn't taste a thing.

A little while later...

Truth be told, I'm not as angry at this wine as I was at first sip.  I poured a second glass--strictly for research purposes--and it's working out a little better. Wine Enthusiast says, "...This has a rich cherry flavor, with firm tannins and ripe acidity. The finish bears a tangy, textured character."  So the cherry explains the cough drop flavor.  The "tangy, textured" finish initially felt like little spikes on my tongue, but it's mellowed out since. 

Or maybe I have.

4 comments:

  1. Don't hate on Beaujolais -- a Nouveau is one that has only been aged a short while, perhaps a few weeks, so you are essentially drinking grape juice. It's like the cheese in that commercial, you see the cheese has made you a cake and you are delighted, but the cheese blows the cake up in your face. A Beaujolais-Nouveau has no manners at all and will blow a cake up in your face.

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  2. Well said. You are wise. (And I owe you a bottle of wine.) Beaujolais Villages is pretty rockin'.

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  3. Back when I was in college and my wine knowledge was in it's infancy, I worked at a wine shop in Upper Montclair. Each year the Nouveau would come out and all the local ten dollar wine snobs would rush in and ask "Is the Nouveau here yet?" or "Oooh, look the Nouveau!". I asked the wine manager what all the craziness was about and he handed me a bottle of Georges and told me to take it home and try it. I wasn't impressed, but there are some years that I am. So now I "get it". I think Molly did a great job explaining.

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