Red Beaujolais - Bad Bottle

You have pretty well ranked the cru beaujolais.

I would rate them

Moulin a Vent Julienas Morgon or Regnie Fleurie Brouilly

but of course that is totally subjective and rates my favorites against my favorites. A really good Fleurie would be better than a so so Moulin, and your mileage may vary.

It sounds like you got a bad bottle of beaujolais villages although corked taste is hard to describe. Tannins that strong would be unusual in a BV, but there are more than one way to make a bottle bad.

I'd place 'Cote de Brouilly' ahead of Brouilly and Regnie. Also, I'd say that while Moulin-a-Vent can produce some of the finest wine of the region, it also produces a significant quantity of embarassingly mediocre wine. For consistency, I'd take Julienas, Morgon or Fleurie over Moulin-a-Vent.

yup

From her description, it sounded more like excess acid (or deficient fruit) than tannins. Just my interpretation, though.

Mark Lipton

Mine too.

I read with attention your ideas on the Beaujolais and I was astonished by your knowledges on this type of wines. I'm a winegrower in Beaujolais and my vines are located in the Morgon area. What was described in the different answers is quite right and if you want to know meore about the way to taste and drink a Beaujolais-wines, you could visit my site (http://lespillets.com/En) . Let's speak about the corks we use. Depending of the type of wines (i.e. BV, or 'crus' that should be kept in the cellar for some years depending of their AOC), we choose the type of cork. I mean that, for a BV (which is supposed to be tasted within two or three yeras) you do not need to have the best quality. However, you find two main types of corks in the market: one piece corks and reconstituted corks (their holes are filled with cork dust or small corks remains). The first ones are of course more expensive but they provide the guaranty that your bottles are well corked and so that your wine will not be in contact with air.

About the taste of Morgon or other Beaujolais crus: Personnaly, I prefer to drink these wines either where they are quite young (two years) or after several years (5 to 6). This is due to the evolution of the wine inbetween and specifically mainly to the effect of the tannin.

Staying at your disposal,

I had a 2001 Duboeuf Fleurie the other day and was very impressed. By far the most tastiest wine from Beaujolais to pass my palate.

So far, noone has included merits of the individual growers. I find it hard to believe that every Moulin-a-Vent is 'better' than any Brouilly.... The land area of Beaujolais Villages is a distinguished (northern) part of Beaujolais and, afaik, the 9 Crus are a subset of Beaujolais Villages, geographically speaking. Furthermore, I believe that a cru wine has to meet more stringent requirements to qualify for that designation, higher alcohol content for instance? my 2c

Sorry if I was not clear. the Louis Jadot 'Chateau des Jacques' is the Moulin that I use as a benmark for good Moulin a Vent, It compares well to many wines. for a lesser example DeBoeuf's Moulin has less over all intensity than many a 'lesser' wine. I would choose DeBoeuf's Regnie over their Moulin for exmple. DeBoeuf sells most of the Beaujolais available in the States and I find a wide range in their wines. Jadot has always seemed to produce higher quality and consistency (in the $8-20 USD per bottle market anyway)

[posted and mailed]

Yes they are, but Jadot does own Chateau des Jacques and DeBoeuf, I believe owns several properties in addition to being 'THE' Beaujolais negociant.

Such a good point! Sometimes the obvious is so obvious we forget to mention it.

Most of the discussion I have seen here has been the two great classic global Beaujolais producers (Deboeuf - IMHO the most over-rated Beaujolais producer ever <he says running and hiding behind a couch with three layers of flame-proof blankets wrapped around him in expectation of the responses> and Louis Jadot who is one of my favourite Burgundy producers but seriously overpriced IMHO for Beaujolais). However I understand how those are easily available elsewhere in the world.

To add my personal favourites for those of you who ever get a chance to visit or to contact some of the smaller independant producers here are two we buy from, and drink, loyally every year:

For Fleurie, Juliénas and especially Moulin-à-Vent : Domaine de la Maison de Fleurie Martine Thévenet Le Bourg Fleurie

For Morgon (especially their aged oak (fûts de chêne)) and Regnié: Domaine de la Côte des Charmes Jacques Trichard Villié Morgon

***** Derek Erb Paris - FRANCE *****

I have never had a bad bottle of Moulin-a-Vent myself, and I really enjoy it.

Well, I agree that for all practical purposes it's a different wine, but that doesn't mean it's no good, or can't be enjoyed in its own right.

And a very, VERY nice web site it is! Thank you for all the effort involved.

(I have no current or prior relationship with the gentleman other than having visited his website).