The Beaujolais TN thread

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And by the way, I played bass clarinet so sort of know your pain. I sucked pretty bad though. Eric Dolphy always brings a smile.
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
2019 Pascal & Jean-Philippe Granger Beaujolais-Villages "Le Bouteau" has been unexpectedly enjoyable over the past few days. A little closed and tannic at first, it blossomed and developed more fruit and volume, but despite its Julienas origins, I don't think it transcended its Beaujolais-Villages place in the regional hierarchy. That initial angularity gave way to a pleasant fruitiness that's hung on for a few days and I think that the old(ish) vines add to the complexity. Not much discernable benefit in cellaring it for much longer, but for the $5.99 I paid for it at Grocery Outlet, I'm not complaining. I've found it a very worthwhile habit to peep at the importer strip on the bottles at GO.

originally posted by BJ:

It helps to listen to some JJ Johnson with this - some of his early albums are great. The new phono preamp helps.
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I get it. Me, I have been on a Serge Chaloff kick over the past few weeks and the similarities between him and JJ are kind of interesting. The baritone sax is in the same register as the trombone ('cello too). Johnson and Chaloff were born in the late 1920s and came up in the big band scene, not the Squaresville Glenn Miller and Sammy Kaye bands, but more like Count Basie and Woody Herman. Both were junkies, but Johnson never sank to the depths that Chaloff reached and subsequentlylived about 40 years longer and made a hell of a lot more records than Serge. Although Chaloff (like Johnson) kicked heroin, a year or so later he died of cancer. I find it interesting that he was so much better on his instrument (baritone sax)than anyone else back then (except for maybe Harry Carney) that I wonder how much more he might have accomplished had he had a longer career. Gerry Mulligan is thought of as the father of putting the bari sax up front of the band, and he was a few years younger than Chaloff, and Serge was THE bebop bari guy while Mulligan was working more with the California Sound, which wasn't as big-band dependent. Both played with Charlie Parker, both Chaloff and Mulligan were addicts, but Mulligan cleaned up in 1953 and went on to greater renown on the instrument to the point where if you ask someone who their favorite baritone saxophonist is, they're probably going to say "Gerry Mulligan" because he's the only one they've heard of. One might say he's the Mouton-Rothschild or Caymus of the baritone sax world (I think Ronnie Cuber was the guy who pulled it all together but the world wasn't looking for an alternative to Mulligan). I'm not sure if any of these guys drank Beaujolais though.

BTW, Which phono preamp did you get? I recently upgraded to a Primare (from a Rega Fono) and it's made a huge difference. 'Tis SUCH a slippery slope, y'know?

-Eden (I used to double on baritone saxophone and oboe in high school. Talk about a f'd-up embouchure!!)(which is why I switched to bass guitar)
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Mulligan, whom I think you're unfairly damning with faint praise, might well have drunk Beaujolais. Listen to his Paris concerts and he addresses the audience in French -- nice touch.
 
Mulligan, whom I think Eden unfairly damns with faint praise, might well have drunk Beaujolais. Listen to his Paris concerts ca. 1954 and he announces the songs in French. Nice touch.
 
I actually sat a table with Sergio Mendes (who I was accompanying) and Gerry Mulligan at a night club in LA in the 1980s, before Gerry got on the stand. Just the three of us chatting, believe it or not. To my surprise, Gerry gave me the time of day, was charming and charismatic. When he played, it was definitely more than the sum of the parts, an almost supernatural mastery and integration with the instrument that one rarely sees.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Mulligan, whom I think Eden unfairly damns with faint praise, might well have drunk Beaujolais. Listen to his Paris concerts ca. 1954 and he announces the songs in French. Nice touch.
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Mea culpa. Upon rereading last night's rumination, I should have dug deeper. "Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi" was one of the first LPs I ever owned (a birthday gift around age 8) and that's what turned me on to the mystique of the baritone saxophone, with it being all about Gerry Mulligan to the exclusion of the others. And as my musical understanding increased and my appreciation of music expanded, I discovered that Mulligan's place in the firmament was more than just blowing a horn, and his work as a composer and arranger really put him far ahead of the other bari players. I look at Charles Mingus in that same context (Jaco Pastorius too) in that the overall body of their work transcended mastering their instruments.

-Eden (jack of some trades, master of none)
 
The deliciousness is back!

I am convinced the Oct/Nov thing Mss. Coudert and Texier mentioned to Rahsaan is real.

'15 Prebende Beaujolais, full on glou - by way of S. Rhone...and I don't care one bit. Knew it was great the second I tasted.

BTW...this sucker was a dense unpleasant beast on release...I just stashed the rest...glad I did.
 
I'm in the market for a decent pre-amp, not specifically phonograph-partnered. Something offering good quality to the budget-minded.

2007 Jean Foillard Morgon Cuvée 3.14 - 5/15/2023

From magnum. Hard to find enough superlatives to characterize this bottle. Beaujolais at 15, sizzling with fresh energy on opening, relaxing into a perfectly smooth but muscular, round wine, plump and cosseting on the mid-palate, sporting cherry and plum fruit flavors, with depth and complexity. I decanted it into four 375s and drank them over the space of about two weeks. This wine would not quit, kicking a** with each and every mouthful, showing only the very faintest sign of tiring near the end of the last half bottle. This is a wine to squirrel away for the serious collector. It astonished me.

2011 Griffe du Marquis - 11/2/2024

No notes but recall this being the first of my bottles that was delicious out of the bottle and the next day. Pleasurable, classy wine. Wonder when the mags will be ready.

2011 Ch“teau Thivin Côte de Brouilly - 1/24/2022

In a great place with a little exposure to air. The initial curtain of sandy tannins parts, granting ingress to succulent, juicy fruit flavors which lean cherry, with an engaging contrast in textures. Fine acidity and good balance, everything very nicely proportioned. Sipping after the wine had been in the glass for a bit, I had to check the label, so surprised was I by the quality and impact of the inner fruit.

Thivin is my Beaujolais home base and I have some bottles of Zaccharie ripening. If I were still buying wine, I'd cellar a few bottles of Foillard 3.14 most years (along with some Briords and anything I could afford from Picq).
 
Well, I have an Akitika power amp, Mid-range Elac speakers, a Schiit Modi Multibit DAC, and an Andover Songbird WiFi receiver. For a while I streamed from the Songbird directly to the power amp, but my brother donated our mom's ancient receiver-preamp last year, and I'm addicted now to the improved sound quality and volume control. On its last legs, tho, and so I scan the horizon for a worthy successor. Would like to handle any source with a port for a potential subwoofer. For now, I mostly stream from WiFi, FWIW.

Thinking just of the ***********, not synching speakers through the whole house. I could splash out on the Aktika preamp, but I'm preternaturally frugal and, just now, spending large on backlogged home maintenance, so I'm open to value options.

Are you sure you want to talk about this here? It feels so public.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
a Schiit Modi Multibit DAC
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you can't really do better for the money than their preamps

and i've heard them plugged in with some badass equipment at 10-20 times the cost
 
2005 Louis-Claude Desvignes Morgon Javernières, first bottling

There is a camp that will insist this wine was more enjoyable a few years ago, and one that will say it isn't ready. I sympathize with both, although ultimately I'd recommend the first group should stick with other producers. The second group will point out - correctly - that the primary fruit has receded entirely while none of the sweetness associated with maturity has been attained. Somewhat predictably, as a way of either alienating or appeasing everyone, I really like where it is right now. It is showing insanely powerful clay influence flavour-wise and texturally, synonymously with what feels like late-hanging but expertly balanced fruit. [ Does this section of the hill really have this much clay? ] I have no doubt this will continue to improve but I can't guarantee that, at least for my palate, it won't start leaning towards something more generic with sweeter fruit. It is remarkably distinctive, expressive of soil, with dense mid-palate, powerful but velvety tannins, and alcohol fully in check.

Have a couple of pours left, will retaste tonight.

[Updated] somewhat predictably, I underestimated the wine as much as I liked it. On day 2, the fruit deepened to blackberry and some raspberry while maintaining sensation of dense clay in mid-palate, without much generic sweetness I was hallucinating about.
 
originally posted by BJ:
I'm pretty clueless about any of this gear. I'm a slightly updated flatearther.
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Me too, but I've been around the hi-fi world for more than my adult life and I get pulled into the modern era only when necessary. Like awhile back when my trusty receiver (Fisher 500B) blowed itself up right at the time when any discretionary income (ha!) was being diverted into something silly like a roof or paint or something like that. I looked on eBay and found a Rotel preamp for less than the price of a few bottles of Cru Beaujolais. The reviews were good, it had the inputs and outputs I needed, and the price was right. I had a Bedini amp in the closet that hadn't been plugged in since I fixed the Fisher the first time and it sounds real musical. The whole system is probably at a mid-fi plus-plus level but it works well.

My next big purchase is probably going to be an upgraded preamp (unless I find a shop that'll work magic on the Fisher) but in the meantime, I'm impressed by the quality (and bargain basement price) of the Rotel.

-Eden (had dinner with a friend a few weeks ago who annually spends more to retube his Audio Research equipment than my entire system is worth)(sounded kind of awe-inspiring though)
 
My next big purchase is probably going to be an upgraded preamp (unless I find a shop that'll work magic on the Fisher) but in the meantime, I'm impressed by the quality (and bargain basement price) of the Rotel.
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I miss my Hafler preamp (and amp) but one can't live in the past. They say.
 
originally posted by Marc Hanes:
My next big purchase is probably going to be an upgraded preamp (unless I find a shop that'll work magic on the Fisher) but in the meantime, I'm impressed by the quality (and bargain basement price) of the Rotel.
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I miss my Hafler preamp (and amp) but one can't live in the past. They say.
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I still have the DH 220 power amp that I built back in ‘82

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Marc Hanes:
I miss my Hafler preamp (and amp) but one can't live in the past. They say.
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I still have the DH 220 power amp that I built back in ‘82

Mark Lipton
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Exactly. The balanced krell from the mid/late 80s would be tough to replace.
 
I'm guessing no one here is familiar with or remembers the LWE (Erath) electronic speakers from the 1960s and forward. I was an early buyer in these fantastic speakers so I was able to get the LWE equalizer which became very rare and valued as it served to enhance the handling of the feedback going to the receiver. This system presented incredibly strong and pure sound.

I sold them off-market to the first buyer prospect who saw them for a very good price in 2020 when we moved to a midrise condo.

What memories!

[EDITED TO ADD] I remember I was very fortuitously to have been playing music by John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. The prospective buyer's face lit up when he heard the music and immediately identified the artists and proceeded to talk about their storied history. Then the sale of the speakers was easy, especially since the equalizer was included.

. . . . . Pete
 
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