Make mine Beaujolais

An email from Gerald Larner - good friend, fellow wine  drinker, fine programme-note essayist. and former Guardian music critic - pays tribute to the 2009 vintage of Beaujolais-Villages, which I omitted to mention in my recent Beaujolais blog (“Simply so French,” 21 June). Though there may not be a great deal of it left by now, you can still find it on restaurant wine lists, he says, even if what you are in danger of being served, without apology, turns out to be the less good (though in my view by no means despicable) 2010, 

In shops, however, it has become hard to track down, even though  Beaujolais stocks do seem to be increasing. Waitrose has just added a 2011 Chateau de Chenas Moulin a Vent (a major Beaujolais cru, offering deeply serious drinking) to its list, not cheap at £11.99 but surely a bargain in terms of quality.  Next time Gerald comes visiting I’ll have a bottle ready for him.

He also suggests in his email that the great disaster of Beaujolais Nouveau, which at one time people used to rush across France to buy, was not entirely bad news. Though much of it was admittedly poor stuff, at least it gave you what he describes as a “mouth feel” - something all wine tasters should treat seriously because it provides a hint of what the vintage might turn out to be like when properly produced.  All of which goes to prove that it’s foolish to treat even the worst Beaujolais without at the very least a touch of respect.

2 July 2014