Cru Beaujolais!

What I’m Crushin’ On… Cru Beaujolais!

Not your sissy nouveau from Thanksgiving!

I can’t stand Beaujolais.  Nouveau, that is.  Its light and fruity and overrated.  But, thats just my opinion.  I’m sure it has its purpose… like getting drunk on at Thanksgiving because you just met your horrifying in-laws or something.  Take away the Nouveau and you have something completely different.    Here is a ranking of Beaujolais in terms of quality: Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Supérieur, Beaujolais-Villages, and Beaujolais Cru.  (Notice how they slip the “Superieur” term in there!  Just looking at the bottle on the shelf, you would think it was the creme de la creme of Beaujolais!)  My favorites are the Cru’s.   Under the Cru umbrella, we have 10 regions:  Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié, and Saint-Amour.  I’m on my way to tasting them all, but so far, my favorites have been the Duboeuf Moulin-a-Vent ’05 and the Brouilly ’06 (also Duboeuf).  Both times I decanted them and had them with my famous Chicken Marsala.  I guess the only reason its famous is because my kids (and husband) will actually jump for joy when I make it.  Both wines were a little on the earthy side and the mushrooms in the Marsala dish went divinely with it!  The Moulin-a-Vent had smooth tannins and a nice medium bodied mouthfeel to it.  I can’t wait to try the ’06!

What makes a Cru different from the rest?  You tend to get a lot more body & substance, sometimes earthiness, longevity (it will do nicely in the bottle for a couple years), and its fun to decant!  I’m all about decanting reds these days, its not just for old wines any more.  All red wines could use some oxygenation to open them up, and trust me, they’ll change and taste great!