A shut and open case

B

BJ

BJ
Perhaps here we can have a thread on the sometimes brief, sometimes longer closed period for Beaujolais.

I always enjoy the higher ridge vineyards of Morgon - Corcelette and Charmes. They are nothing at all like Cote du Py, which is un autre chose - they are more akin to a Chiroubles if anything, but really just their own thing.

Victor Sorin is an interesting producer - some of his wines are full on bio/naturelle, which I avoid as they just trend towards flaw out here in the Northwest US. His other wines are well made and enjoyable - one I particularly like is his Morgon Charmes.

I fell in love with his '17 Charmes and bought a decent amount of it - lovely strawberry fields, dirt, gentle meat. Super glou.

A couple years ago I noted a bottle seemed a bit dimmed and chalked it up to variation, but then a couple months later, the next bottle was as shut as anything I've ever tried - a big nada. I believe I tried another and yup, closed. I was really sad and just figured I would have a 5-7 year wait.

At the wine storage yesterday grabbing some stuff and I saw a bottle of this. I thought, what the heck, let's check in. Well, heck - fully back on. Slightly more advanced, both a little heavier and lighter at the same time - freshness off, but advancing into lighter earthiness. Excellent. And gone in no time.

What's y'all's experience with Beaujolais closed periods?
 
Roilette is often closed for awhile. But that’s Fleurie.

Those higher ridge vineyards are probably going to be more imperative as growing seasons get hotter - you’re a step ahead.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Roilette is often closed for awhile. But that’s Fleurie.
Click to expand...

there is no question of Roilette being closed for long stretches. As to whether it's due to its being a Fleurie, who knows. I prize much Fleurie for its huge window of drinkability, and for its early earthiness relative to confining mineral. As such, it stands out among other Cru. Perhaps we should explore the possibility of Roilette being closed due to its Moulin-a-Vent origins :-)
 
Not quite the same as 'closed', but I've been waiting for the fruit to calm down and hopefully de-roastify itself on a few 2015s. That may be a losing battle, but I'm hoping they taste better in the future...

2018 had a similar burly (sub-optimal) period, but I didn't hold onto those.
 
I've posted a couple or more times about my experiences aging Beaujolais from good vignerons and vineyards. I've observed some of them (sorry, can't recall specific labels now - Vissoux MaV or Fleurie was one) to go through a period in which they taste downright rotten and garbagy, only to present after additional aging (or sometimes just thorough airing) as a wine of significantly different character than the pre-dumb version.

I imagine this would be what's called pinote-ing, but I don't find the post-transformation wine to resemble Pinot at all; it's its own thing - thinner (in a good way) than glou-stage gamay, refined, even elegant. At this stage, the wine can be very fine. After a few of these bottles, the occasional references in wine lore to the days when Beaujolais-based wines from the Burgundy region were more highly prized than the pinot-based become credible.

I age my good Beaujolais long enough now that I haven't encountered the garbagy stage in a long time, but I know I've posted about it here before. I've speculated that it's the breakdown of gamay's especially rich fruit material when young which causes the transitionally rotten flavors and aromas. What I'm referring to isn't, by the way, caused by bottle variation - I've opened more than one bottle in this state, when my initial impulse is to pour it down the drain, only to find it the next day fine and delicious.

Related, I've opened 2005 Thivin Cotes de Brouilly and 2007 Foillard 3.14 (magnum) this year that have been outstanding (especially the Foillard; you can find my notes on both in CT under 'fitzi.')

Anyway, personally, I've never been a fan of these wines in the glou stage, and all my most recent Beaujolais purchases were as vins de garde for long aging. I think I'm not alone in this practice - if you look at CT stats for, say, Tete Julienas 'Prestige' 2005, less than half of all bottles held show as having been opened as of this evening. Ditto Desvignes Morgon Javernieres 2005 (granted, Desvignes seems to be in a league of their own as to longevity, and, also, the reliability of the CT consumption statistics is questionable).

This is a good topic, BJ, thanks. FWIW, I look at good muscadet in the same way (minus the garbagy flavors.) Each of these two varietals makes up a significant part of my long-term cellar.

Cheers.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Roilette is often closed for awhile. But that’s Fleurie.
Click to expand...

there is no question of Roilette being closed for long stretches. As to whether it's due to its being a Fleurie, who knows. I prize much Fleurie for its huge window of drinkability, and for its early earthiness relative to confining mineral. As such, it stands out among other Cru. Perhaps we should explore the possibility of Roilette being closed due to its Moulin-a-Vent origins :-)
Click to expand...

Isn't the Roilette lore that the vineyard was originally classified Moulin-a-Vent (also true of Vissoux's Fleurie Garants)? I thought that name Roilette (sans classification) was the owner's way of objecting to the change.
 
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