A Tale of Two Gamays

M

MLipton

Mark Lipton
With the return of Fall weather and our (gradual) recovery from a nasty early Fall upper respiratory viral infection, a middle aged man's thoughts turn naturally to game birds, Fall fungi and... Beaujolais. Thus it was that over the past few nights we've begun to dip into some recent acquisitions. First, it was the '09 Damien Coquelet Beaujolais-Villages which was an appealing color but which smelled and tasted mostly of Brett. I am not particularly put off by Brett, which to my taste gives rise to lovely meatiness in wines from the Rhone and an appealing funk to many a Cote D'Or red, but I must confess that I found its presence in a Gamay-based wine to be too much for my liking. I must also confess, though, to having drunk with pleasure quite a few older Breton Morgons that many others found too Bretty. Its presence in a young Gamay, somehow, seemed to strike an off note to me, perhaps because it obscured the appealing fresh fruit that I was expecting to find?

Tonight's offering was the ever-reliable 2009 Pierre Chermette (Vissoux) Cuve Traditionnelle VV which hit all right notes, being light on its feet, fresh, vibrant and -- above all else -- gouleyant in all the right ways. Hooray for Gamay! Let's celebrate Autumn in all its glory. Bring on the roasted game birds with fungi!

Mark Lipton
 
Live Brett eats esters, so particularly insidious for carbonic gamay.

I thought my last Coquelet reduced rather than Bretty, but I suppose both are possible.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
A Tale of Two GamaysWith the return of Fall weather and our (gradual) recovery from a nasty early Fall upper respiratory viral infection, a middle aged man's thoughts turn naturally to game birds, Fall fungi and... Beaujolais. Thus it was that over the past few nights we've begun to dip into some recent acquisitions. First, it was the '09 Damien Coquelet Beaujolais-Villages which was an appealing color but which smelled and tasted mostly of Brett. I am not particularly put off by Brett, which to my taste gives rise to lovely meatiness in wines from the Rhone and an appealing funk to many a Cote D'Or red, but I must confess that I found its presence in a Gamay-based wine to be too much for my liking. I must also confess, though, to having drunk with pleasure quite a few older Breton Morgons that many others found too Bretty. Its presence in a young Gamay, somehow, seemed to strike an off note to me, perhaps because it obscured the appealing fresh fruit that I was expecting to find?
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I had this and the '09 Chiroubles from Coquelet in the past month and both were undrinkably bretty. I had assumed lack of care in shipping in hot weather was to blame, but maybe not?
 
originally posted by Bwood:

I had this and the '09 Chiroubles from Coquelet and both were undrinkably bretty. I had assumed lack of care in shipping in hot weather was to blame, but maybe not?
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Probably not in this case--the Louis/Dressner wines your area are all shipped refrigerated (even distributor to store). I had the Beaujolais-Village a few nights ago and found traces of brett, but not nearly to the degree you all experienced it. In this particular bottle it wasn't even a major flavor in the wine, just sort of a twinge around the edge.
 
Yep, I know the story well.

I do suspect that when it comes to brett, one person's twinge is another person's garbage pail of trash, although in the case of the Coquelet wines, I wasn't the only person who thought the wine too bretty to drink. But maybe it was reduction? it would be good to think it is an individual wine issue.

I think drinking through most of a couple cases of wines bought in this area in the past month, from a variety of importers/distributors, has made me suspicious as I would guess that roughly 75% opened so far were ruined or adversely affected by heat somewhere along the way; of course, most of the wines were the sort that are extraordinarily sensitive to a few hours of excessive heat. It's a fairly depressing turn of events for someone who very much wants to to see the wines available and selling well in my market (and elsewhere)
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Live Brett eats esters, so particularly insidious for carbonic gamay.

I thought my last Coquelet reduced rather than Bretty, but I suppose both are possible.
Click to expand...

I've had this wine only twice; the first with you, Joe; and the second just 3 nights ago. I may have relatively high tolerance/insensitivy to brett --although previous experiences with some Rhone and Piedmonte bottles make me think I am not above average on the insentivity scale -- but I noticed at the time nothing that I'd attribute to brett in either bottle, but Saul's " twinge around the edge" comment does make sense to me, now that he says that, about the Monday night bottle.

Joe, did you find that bottle at your midtown, "welcome '09 Beaujolais" impromptu reduced or has it been subsequent bottle(s) only?
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Live Brett eats esters, so particularly insidious for carbonic gamay.

I thought my last Coquelet reduced rather than Bretty, but I suppose both are possible.
Click to expand...

The Brett versus reduction issue reared its head again Sunday night at dinner with Cory, Sophie and others. The wine in question was 2001 Forey Echezeaux. I thought it reduced, Cory insisted that it was brett. For comparison, there was a 1998 Beaucastle that had a whiff of baby diaper. That, to me, is Brett. The Forey was "gunpowdery" and "tire rubber" which I find to be signs of reduction.

Anyway, I'd love to be able to have a workable (not perfect) definition to separate the two when they are not co-mingling.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Live Brett eats esters, so particularly insidious for carbonic gamay.

I thought my last Coquelet reduced rather than Bretty, but I suppose both are possible.
Click to expand...

The Brett versus reduction issue reared its head again Sunday night at dinner with Cory, Sophie and others. The wine in question was 2001 Forey Echezeaux. I thought it reduced, Cory insisted that it was brett. For comparison, there was a 1998 Beaucastle that had a whiff of baby diaper. That, to me, is Brett. The Forey was "gunpowdery" and "tire rubber" which I find to be signs of reduction.

Anyway, I'd love to be able to have a workable (not perfect) definition to separate the two when they are not co-mingling.
Click to expand...

I would say with the two Coquelet wines the aroma was more "garbage" not "tires burning in the garbage dump," thus brett. When you have two chemists, mark and sfjoe, on opposite sides of the argument, things could get interesting.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:

Joe, did you find that bottle at your midtown, "welcome '09 Beaujolais" impromptu reduced or has it been subsequent bottle(s) only?
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Just a more recent one. I thought the midtown bottle was fab.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by kirk wallace:

Joe, did you find that bottle at your midtown, "welcome '09 Beaujolais" impromptu reduced or has it been subsequent bottle(s) only?
Click to expand...
Just a more recent one. I thought the midtown bottle was fab.
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good to know, b/c that was certainly my impression of that bottle.
 
we are all awaiting the great 2010 vintage, the best since 1978. It's been twitted.
 
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