In Brief:
2005 Roux Pere & Fils Beaujolais-Villages ($12, Varsity):
This Gamay (the first I've tasted) has a powerful, appetizing nose of candied cherries and strawberries, which is supported by a medium-bodied, slightly sweet, fruity palate, with good acidic freshness and strong tannins at the finish. The simplicity of this wine becomes boring after a glass or two, perhaps sooner if one is already acquainted with the flavor profile, and I eventually found the sweetness to be cloying. This would be a good, delicious introduction to red wine. Drinks easily. For lots of flavor and tannins with low alcohol content (12.5%) this is a good choice.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is powerful, fresh, and almost artificially fruity, like an overripe cherry confection, vaguely reminiscent of candied strawberries and overripe kiwis. Though I make analogies to strawberries and kiwis to describe the nose, there were not distinct tones but rather a single, unchanging scent.
The taste was similarly pure: loads of fresh fruit with a hint of sugar, acidic enough to evoke freshness. The wine is medium bodied, yet very flavorful with good extract. The sensation of ripe fruit fills the mouth. The finish is tart and considerably tannic.
In conclusion this is an extraordinarily simplistic wine, with an appetizing, aroma and a Wikipedia-entry palate. There is no transformation on the nose or palate, and no aromatic complexity at all.
It is quite good, but after a glass or two, it became tiring. Its simplicity and obvious component flavors became boring, and the slight sugary sweetness became cloying. I was left with the over-sugared sensation of having eaten lots and lots of jam. It's like eating candy - in a good and bad way.
We first tasted at Kalluri corner, where the wine seemed truly simplistic with the aromatic ambiance and tiny glasses. When I retasted from the Reidel bordeaux and the Ravenscroft amplifier, I was able to get a couple of different facets from the nose - notably the slight overripe kiwi characteristic. The fruit in the palate was more readily apparent too. In fact, even the texture was clearer in the mouth. The quiet, odor-free atmosphere in the study near my room, in combination with superior glasses, vastly clarified the bouquet and taste of the wine.
Conclusion: This wine drinks readily and requires no great concentration to enjoy it, however it left me unsatisfied in its over-sweetness, over-the-top (and slightly fake) fruitiness, and lack of complexity. A great wine to introduce a novice to red wine, since it illustrates acidity, medium body, tannins, and fruit aromas with blinding clarity. It was both frustrating and completely unrewarding to probe beneath its innocuous exterior (as I did to great length, aided by the Ravenscroft). I would only buy this wine again for a party of non-serious drinkers, or to introduce a friend to red wine.
Notes from Robert Parker:
RP: "Gamay is not drunk for its complexity but rather for its heady, direct, ripe, soft, fleshy, exuberant fruitiness and easygoing texture." - WBG 392
RP: "Beaujolais should be served [at] 53-56 degrees Fahrenheit." WBG 420
-Due to the cold and rainy night, this Beaujolais was probably somewhere in that range.
Parker also says that burgundies can be damaged by excessive aeration. This bottle was opened without decanting. and each glass poured "opened" in about 5 minutes of aeration by swirling.
RP: "The window of opportunity for drinking red and white Burgundy is one of the smallest of any great wine in the world. One of the great attributes of Bordeaux, and a reason, no doubt, why it commands the prices and international following it does, is the broad span of years over which it can be drunk. When a bottle of Bordeaux reaches its plateau of maturity, it can frequently remain there for 10, 15, sometimes 20 years before it begins a very slow process of decline. Burgundies can reach their plateau of maturity in five years and unceremoniously begin to fade after another six or seven months. " -WBG 421
RP: Drinking the finest mature red Burgundies is an experience akin to eating candy because of the extraordinary sweetness they convey. - WBG 422
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