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WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

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Keith M

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WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

by Keith M » Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:16 pm

Always fun! The Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin Wine Merchant in San Francisco. Fun chance to check in on some wines I've sampled previously and learn about some new ones.

I started off the evening with a bit of the 2011 Julien Sunier Fleurie (from magnum), which offered beautiful floral structure on nose, cherry and dark soil on the palate. Lots of dirt. The 2011 Julien Sunier Régnié (from magnum) was lighter, more delicate, more magnesium/mineral, but offered very little on nose, lots more structure on finish. The 2010 Julien Sunier Régnié had a recessed but awesome nose. I like this. Plenty laden, silent fruit, sedentary, yet pleasureable. Finish also offers promise, nice.

Next onto Cyril Alonso who is pouring the 2012 P-U-R Beaujolais Nouveau from magnum. Taste grapes delicious grapes, super preprimary, fun grapey, personable, no depth. The 2011 P-U-R Beaujolais-Villages Quartz et Sable has a nose that is wild and likeable. I taste more heavy fruit, bit lumbering, acid here high, not yet integrated. The 2010 P-U-R Morgon Côte du Py has a fantastic nose, brett, beautiful brett, electricity is here, anticipation, bam rich-bam acid, brettalicious.

New producer (to me) from Selection Massale is the 2010 Bruno de Bize L'homme a la Veste 11.3%! calm approachable nose, woodsy, mushrooms? salty bloody acidhound lipstick. This is pretty fun. The 2010 Bruno de Bize Tête de Cuvée has lots of sweat on nose, delicious depth, dripping, raw raw fruit, what beauty. The 2009 Bruno de Bize Morgon has nose I like, plenty of raspberries and cherry, structure, interest, yes, needs time. This Bruno de Bize is making some pretty interesting stuff. I like the raw/rustic edge to the wines, even with a year or two on them.

Onto a LDM/Farm favorite, the 2011 Terres Dorées/Jean-Paul Brun L'Ancien has a familiar simple/great nose. Ding ding ding, guzzalicious. This sure is easy to drink. The 2010 Terres Dorées/Jean-Paul Brun Côte du Brouilly has a simple nose at the moment. In some vague way I am reminded of wood chips. Taste layered rhubarb, layered vegetable/fruit BBQ. Light and pure. Of interest, but for drinking purposes, I find it kind of boring at moment, at least on this night. The 2010 Terres Dorées/Jean-Paul Brun Fleurie has a pretty simple nose, not offering much. Everything is light and beauty in mouth, fun. I am reminded of cigarettes with both this and the last wine. Not sure why. I am again intrigued with how this wine develops, it seems to be moving slowly since last year. Interesting. The 2010 Terres Dorées/Jean-Paul Brun Morgon has a nose I acually love, though it is not showing much. Palatewise, there is so much here: depth, cake, blood. I like everything here, this is eerie.

Yeah, a great experience with the 2010 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie. Though the nose sings, it's hard to tell if I like it. But the beauty of delicacy, lightness utter amazingness on the palate. Delicacy on steroids, wow. I've had my own personal history of sampling this wine and finally for my palate its utter amazingness is coming together. This wine was stunning and exactly what I have heard from others. Yea!

The 2009 Georges Descombes Brouilly Vielles Vignes has a slightly earthy rustic nose and tastes of beautiful cherry drop. Real beauty, lots to like here. The 2009 Georges Descombes Morgon Vielles Vignes has aromatic interest, tastes a bit richer/more liqueur, easy to drink, least food oriented Beaujolais of the set to me. There is dryness on finish. Slightly harder for me to evaluate at the moment.

Back to Noveau, the 2012 Jean Foillard Beaujolais Nouveau is grapey, simplicity. Last year I liked P-U-R more, this year the reverse, this seems to have a plushness that is good and defined, complexity and depth. The 2010 Guy Breton Régnié has a bit of a stink that I commonly find with Breton. Wow, lots of stuffing, lots of acid, plummy, thick, needs time, likeable, more primal at moment. The 2008 Guy Breton Régnié has caramel on nose, lovely nose here, richer caramel style, works great, cut with a knife, yummy yum yum, pleasure seeker. I am surprised by the caramel element, not sure what I am getting, but not what I'd expect from 2008 Beaujolais.

The 2010 Charly Thévenet Régnié Grain & Granit has a lovely nose, lovely presence. Plush, drinking more stuffing but wow, earthy/rustic finish. Can't put my finger on it, but wow wow wow, this wine floors me. The 2010 Chanrion Côte de Brouilly has a simple superexpressive nose, plush and structured, salty, just a granite shadow, granite and salt, hmmmmm. Not sure what to think about this. The 2011 Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly has a slight likeable funk element on the nose with a rich wondrous fuller vision in mouth, salt, iron and tart fruit, one defined note. Yum.

The 2009 Jean Foillard Fleurie is silent at the moment, with a delicate midpalate. Something about this wine at the moment just faintly suggests wood, spicebox, and sangiovese. The 2008 Jean Foillard Fleurie is likeable. The structured grip is serious, quite gripping savory, pretty seriously good. This is worth further evaluation.

The 2010 Guy Breton Morgon Vielles Vignes has that slight stink nose, integration of the weird, lots of chew, lots of grip, finish nails, wowsers. Not really sure what I thought of this, but it was pretty interesting. The 2010 Jean-Paul Thévenet Morgon (from magnum) has a slight stink, salty meaty bleeding, real singing but serious. The 2010 Marcel Lapierre Morgon (from magnum) smells of lipstick, taste like lipstick of the gods, yes yes yes.

The 2010 Jean Foillard Morgon Corcellete has a richer woodsy nose so much more delicate on palate, serious purity of finish, purity, purity. The 2010 Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py has depth/slight funk on nose, bigger wave ~ I have no real idea what that means.
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Marc D

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Re: WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

by Marc D » Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:47 pm

Wow, what a bunch of great Beaujolais.

I recently tried that Homme de la Veste and had a similar impression as you.
Really earthy, cerebral wine, and I think it is because Bruno DeBize uses a traditional fermentation like JP Brun, as opposed to the fruit forward wines from partial carbonic.

Was Cyril Alonso at the event? If you get a chance, try the P-U-R Regnie Granite that he makes, I found it an incredible combination of Gamay fruit, a bit of funk and a lot of minerals.
Really great wine. Those guys are doing some great work in other areas besides Beaujolais. I drank a Vin de Table P-U-R recently that was semi carbonic fermentation of old vine Cinsault that is wild stuff.

Do you know who imports the Julien Sunier wines? That is one I am not familiar with.
Marc Davis
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Brian K Miller

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Re: WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

by Brian K Miller » Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:34 pm

dittos to Mark D's comment! :mrgreen:

If you like Selection Massale imports and kinda funky gamay, try the "L'Insurge" from Jeremy Quastana. Paul Marcuse (Rockridge Market Hall) had it a few weeks ago!
...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach
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Re: WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

by Keith M » Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:46 pm

Marc D wrote:I recently tried that Homme de la Veste and had a similar impression as you.
Really earthy, cerebral wine, and I think it is because Bruno DeBize uses a traditional fermentation like JP Brun, as opposed to the fruit forward wines from partial carbonic.

Indeed, if my scribbles are correct, De Bize and Brun were the only noncarbonic wines at the tasting. And it showed.

Was Cyril Alonso at the event? If you get a chance, try the P-U-R Regnie Granite that he makes, I found it an incredible combination of Gamay fruit, a bit of funk and a lot of minerals.
Really great wine. Those guys are doing some great work in other areas besides Beaujolais. I drank a Vin de Table P-U-R recently that was semi carbonic fermentation of old vine Cinsault that is wild stuff.

He was there, pouring. Thanks for the info on the VdT, that sounds interesting indeed.

Do you know who imports the Julien Sunier wines?

Joli Vin
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Re: WTN: Beaujolais Bash at Arlequin 2012

by Rahsaan » Fri Nov 30, 2012 9:54 pm

Thanks for this. I've found a lot of 2010s closed down and tough to appreciate over the past few months, which could explain a lot of your reactions to them. But then clearly that is not a blanket statement. Your note on 2010 Roilette sounds great!

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