Monday, January 18, 2010

Shut Up 'N Drink Yer Nouveau

Just when I thought I'd made it through an entire season without a drop of Beaujolais Nouveau passing my lips, last night I was forced – forced, I say! – to drink some. Know what? I'm glad.

Beaujolais Nouveau "Cuvée Première," Terres Dorées (Jean-Paul Brun) 2009
$12. 12% alcohol. Nomacorc. Importer: Louis/Dressner, New York, NY.

Showing nary a trace of the Banana Bubble Yum yeast (aka, 71B) that makes most Beaujolais Nouveau deplorably undrinkable, Jean-Paul Brun's example is just what an en primeur wine should be: a gluggable deliverer of simple pleasure. A snap of red delicious apple leads to pure, clean strawberry and just-barely-ripe red-cherry fruit. Chalky, fruity, crisp and thirst quenching... everything that Bo-jo-Noo-vo should be but all too rarely is.

16 comments:

Marcus said...

OK... if you say so.

I like the label a lot. I'm in.

TWG said...

Hmm, visit NYC lately?

NJFoodies said...

Interesting. I have still yet ever to try it.

David McDuff said...

Marcus,
I can hardly say it'll rock your world but I do think you'd enjoy it. Is it even available north of the border?

TWG,
Nope, but BROWN comes to me (or a friend in this case).

NJF (Mark),
Thanks for stopping by. Polaner distributes in NJ on behalf of Dressner, though you may still have to hit the NY market (as T suggested above) to find any).

Samantha Dugan said...

I too had to just suck it up and admit that they were not as bad as they have been this year. For the first time, like ever...I found them kinda drinkable this year, think it was the same, "sans banana" deal.

David McDuff said...

Hey Sam,
Just to be abundantly clear, this is by no means an endorsement of "this vintage" of Beaujo Nouveau. 'Tis only an expression of my liking of this particular wine from J-P Brun, which happens to be fermented on its native yeasts (thus no banana nose). Your voice from earlier in the season was definitely in my ear as I wrote this little post.

Marcus said...

In Quebec we got only 3 brands of vin nouveau this year, only 2 were Beaujolais. Mommessin and DuBoeuf I think (Ontario had 7). So no, it's not north of the border. Gotta get me to Philly to taste some. Looking at airfare right now...

David McDuff said...

You won't find it on the Philly market either, Marcus, though I'm sure I could rustle up a bottle or two should you come down for a visit. Otherwise, all signs point to NYC.

TWG said...

CSW or nothing

bill l said...

hmmm, i don't remember alot of arm twisting.
drank another bottle with left overs last night. delicious.
is there a way to fill a fountain in my back yard with this?

KH said...

Sounds like an excellent Bojo. If I may add, in my experience the banana aroma is not exclusive to 71B. I believe it is an aroma that can be found from fermentation more generally, and I have observed it even in non-inoculated fermentation. When the wine is rushed to bottle (not settled well, etc) I have noticed the aroma can carry forward.

David McDuff said...

TWG,
Is that your new credo or just a statement about the availability of the wine?

Bill,
I don't know... the welts on my arm are only now beginning to subside. You'll have to talk to Joe D. or J-P B. about that fountain. I expect something could be arranged.

KH,
Welcome aboard. You're absolutely right. Banana is a very typical aroma of young wines that are still showing their yeastiness or leesiness in the bottle. And yes, it's a scent that can crop up with ambient yeast fermentation just as with commercial/inoculated yeast ferments. I'd also add that it's a scent I find much more commonly in white wines than in reds, perhaps because they're much more frequently rushed to bottling and release.

All of that said, the banana and candy aromas that 71B plops on top of pretty much all mass market Nouveau wines are far more prominent and far less likely to resolve with time than are the banana scents associated with other wines.

TWG said...

Not my credo, just a statement on wine searcher results and the CSW website implies they're the sole source.

Marcus said...

David - Your offer is very kind. I want to visit your city one day! Will keep you posted, as long as you make sure you let me know if you ever think you are going to make it to la belle province.

David McDuff said...

Thanks for the clarification, Tom (don't go makin' me use winky-faces, now).

Mais bien sûr, Marcus.

KH said...

Thanks so much for your reply. I see your point about the 71B, I just wonder if the other processes in making BN contribute in a more significant way to "banana bubble yum" than the yeast selection? I speculate the mass produced BN is made from under mature fruit, extracted and fermented fast at warm temperature (likely thermo-vinification). If 71B leaves that much of a fingerprint, then I wonder why a BN producer wouldn't simply switch yeast selection to move away from this aroma profile (or do the focus groups actually like it?). Additionally I'd imagine it's cheaper to use a more generic strain.

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