I hope that regular readers will agree that I’m not a big hype merchant. If I big something up, it’s because I really, really like it. This is one such wine. At under £10 it is a no-brainer, and I’ve already bought some. But a caveat: those who prefer power over elegance (and I’m not criticizing you if that’s your preference) may not ‘get’ this wine. I think it is superbly elegant, and it showed well over successive evenings.
Jean-Paul Dubost ‘Tracot’ Beaujolais Villages 2010 Beaujolais, France
12.5% alcohol. Fresh, natural, mineral and quite serious with a lively spiciness under the sapid black cherry fruit. Fresh acidity and a serious mineral component help to make this an alive wine. Just delicious, and one of the best sub-£10 reds I’ve ever had. 92/100 (£9.95 Berry Bros & Rudd)
The morgon is 10.70 at http://www.hourlierwines.co.uk/index.php?keywords=Dubost&p=shop&submit=+Search+
Significantly “better” than the villages but the real star is the non-sulphured moulin a vent, not listed on the web site but I know that they have some! It has a really horrid label but the stuff inside is stunning.
Best, David
Bbr are down to their last case but have just ordered 200 more
Jamie,
I don’t know if this is a ‘natural’ wine – that is, low sulphur and natural ferment, but at the Wine Gang tastings earlier this month I tasted severy natural Beaujolais wines from basic to (named)village level and thought that Gamay just did not suit this treatment. Or should we say lack of treatment. What’s your take on this – does ‘natural’ Gamay ever work well? I found them extremely challenging stylistically.
This ‘Superb Beaujolais’ has some serious winemaking faults. In a bottle I tried recently there was an underlying very evident acetic acid taste lurking beneath a fantastic colour, bouquet and gamay style wine. What’s worse it developed in the glass over 2-3 hours. This is a serious and irreversible fault from untidy winemaking or lack of care during bottling. All comments welcome.