Wine Blogging Wednesday 68 – Got Gamay?

Welcome to Wine Blogging Wednesday.  Today mark’s the 68^th edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday – Got Gamay?  You can read the announcement details here.

As I mentioned in the announcement post, the Gamay grape is one of the most underrated varietals – afflicted with ‘guilt by association syndrome’ because of Beaujolais Nouveau.  I hope this month’s WBW served as a catalyst for a couple of people to try a Gamay wine that they may not have otherwise tried, and/or maybe changed the perception of this oft maligned grape.

I have come to appreciate the ‘wallet friendly’ wines coming out of the Crus of Beaujolais.  Aside from Chile, there aren’t too many regions that offer such a high value, high quality ‘bang for the buck’ as Cru Beaujolais (I know I may have opened a can of worms with that comment).

My intent for this month’s WBW was to feature one Beaujolais from each of the ten Crus.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a ‘Chenas’ or a ‘Cote de Brouilly’ in my local shops (and was just too lazy to order online).  Instead, I decided to feature my favorite, not so favorite, and honorable mention.

Of the handful of Crus I tasted, my favorite by far, was the Marciel Lapierre Morgon.

Marciel Lapierre 2008 Morgon – I picked this up at Terrior Wine Merchants in San Francisco during a trip last month.  I believe this was $24/bottle at Terrior.  Imported by Kermit Lynch.  One of the owners of Terrior, Luc Erotran, noted that this wine has no sulfites added.  Very simple at first, this wine blossomed like desert wildflowers after a rain – bright, lively, fragrant.   On the nose I picked up cherry, plum, violets, and spice with more violets, cherry and pepper in the mouth.   True to form, high acidity, low tannins.  This wine had a great floral finish.  Although this one was at the high end of my Gamay acceptable price point scale, I consider this an excellent value.    My only regret is that I didn’t buy more bottles of this wine.  If you can find it – buy it!

Conversely, and surprisingly, my least favorite of the Gamay’s I tried this month was the Jacky Janodet 2007 Moulin à Vent.  This wasn’t a bad wine, but it certainly wasn’t what I have come to expect of a Moulin à Vent and Jacky Janodet – rich, more terrior, robust examples of Gamay.  Ah, the hazards of high expectations!  Simple black cherry, strawberry, game meat, and pepper with light acidity.  At $17.99, I found myself disappointed with this wine.  I would consider this a low value at this price point.

An honorable mention for WBW is one of the best ‘value’ wines I’ve had in  a long time – Louis Jadot 2008 Beaujolais Village (see Penny Wise Wine Nirvana post here).

Please post your Wine Blogging Wednesday links or writeup in the comments section below, and I’ll have the recap up on Friday.

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