Beaujolais Beyond Nouveau: Taking Comfort in the Crus

Class transcript:

Welcome, welcome, one and all. It is Sunday. It is four o'clock on the East Coast in Washington, D.C. We are thrilled to have you all with us, all the more so because we are taking this week, uh, Jesus, how many of you said 34th week together? 34. 34th week together, um, to celebrate one of my favorite wines. I'm actually upset that it's taken us this long to get to Beaujolais, uh, but I wanted to wait, uh, until the moment was right for one of my, uh, favorite wines. Beaujolais, uh, represents, encapsulates so much of what, uh, I love about wine. It is equally easy drinking, um, and turns age-worthy and profound. Uh, it expresses this wonderful sense of place and it embodies this region, um, of France that, um, encompasses some of the finest food and, uh, some of the kind of warmest, um, most hospitable people, um, you are likely to find anywhere, uh, on, uh, earth.

Uh, and, uh, it is a wonderful underdog, uh, wine as well. Um, I like underdogs in all walks of life, but particularly, um, in the glass. Um, so, uh, Beaujolais, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, we are tackling today. Gamay, uh, is the grape. They are, um, essentially synonymous. I can't think of another designation of origin in France that is dominated to the same extent, um, as, uh, Beaujolais is by Gamay, you know, that's excluding the, you know, odd monopole, uh, here or there, but, uh, Gamay, truly the star of the show, um, and there's this, you know, wonderful, romantic, intimate association, particularly in the northern end of Beaujolais.

So, uh, I think it's a great, uh, between, uh, the grape Gamay, um, and, uh, these fabulous granitic, uh, soils, um, and, uh, they really, uh, enhance and enliven, uh, one, the other, uh, so that, uh, really, um, the whole is greater, uh, than the sum of the parts. And Gamay is grown elsewhere in the world, but it doesn't achieve the same heights anywhere else. Um, most of you, uh, will recognize, uh, Beaujolais, um, as an easy drinking. It achieves its most famous expression in, uh, Beaujolais Nouveau, uh, which will be hitting the market, dropping this Thursday. Um, uh, it is, uh, Le Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé is the, uh, the, uh, popular slogan. Um, in English, they say it's Beaujolais Nouveau time, uh, because we're incapable of translating Est Arrivé, but, uh, that doesn't drop until Thursday.

Today, we're celebrating the cruise. So, uh, we're going to be drinking the Beaujolais Nouveau, there are 10 cruises that roughly correspond to, uh, the 10 greatest villages for Beaujolais in the region. Uh, and they make some of the most amazing wines in the world. Um, you know, not just in this small corner of France, uh, of France rather, but, you know, anyway, anywhere that I, that I can think of, you know, these are, um, amazing terroir-driven, fabulous wines in need of more champions. So, uh, we are talking less Beaujolais Nouveau. Uh, there'll be time for that, uh, later, uh, in the week. And we are talking, uh, crew, uh, Beaujolais. And we'll go over that distinction, uh, a little bit further, uh, in the moment.

But, um, you know, the story of Beaujolais, uh, it's a story of, uh, revival. It is a story of this great underdog in the shadow of, uh, Burgundy in the shadow of Pinot Noir. Uh, but it's always also a fabulous story of changing tastes, um, you know, the fickle, um, wine market, um, and both environmental and a bit of cultural, uh, revival. So, um, you know, Beaujolais is a wine as such, but, uh, it is emblematic of these larger shifts, um, in the wine industry, uh, particularly in the last several decades, um, which are equally worth, uh, celebrating. Um, so, uh, without further ado, uh, we've hit, uh, 404. For the sake of provisioning today, we have a bunch of bottles and then we have a flight as well.

Um, you know, for the sake of our narrative arc, I'm going to start off with a couple of bottles that we sold. Then we're going to move into, uh, the individual cruise thereafter. Uh, we have four wines in the flight. Um, if you have four glasses, more power to you. If you don't, you know, just at least break out a couple of glasses and move backward and forward, uh, between the wines. Uh, I know I say this a lot, but, you know, I find that way of tasting that dynamic, you know, having a yin to the yang hugely illuminating. Um, and, you know, I am, uh, want to say that there's, you know, no right or wrong way, uh, to enjoy these wines.

So, uh, I'm going to start, you know, I don't think you're going to, uh, spoil the enjoyment of your Riesling if you start with your Moulin de Vol and vice versa. So, um, you know, e-drink, be merry. Beaujolais is a wine of pleasure. Um, you know, it is, you know, a wine of, of immediate gratification. So, um, you know, have fun out there, get down to it. Um, without further ado, of course, uh, we're going to kick it off, uh, with a bit of verse and naturally, um, we're going to kick things off with, uh, a bit of, uh, French verse, um, of course, because this is, you know, ostensibly, um, uh, a, a, a French lesson, um, and, uh, classically French, um, for the sake of this particular poet, uh, Paul Valéry.

Um, so this is a poem fittingly titled, uh, The Lost Wine. This is obviously in translation. One day into the sea I cast, but where I cannot now divine as offering to oblivion my small store of precious wine. What a rare little liquid, uh, liquor rather, uh, willed your loss. Some oracle half understood some hidden impulse of the heart that made the poured wine seem like blood. From this infusion of smoky rose, the sea regained its purity, its usual transparency. Lost was the wine and drank the waves. I saw high in the briny air forms, um, fathomed leaping there. Um, I love that, you know, that, that sense of, um, you know, mystery and the fathomless depths, of the sea, um, that come with, uh, wine.

Um, at any rate, uh, let's kick it off, uh, with, uh, a brief, uh, you know, nod to history. I feel like we cover the same, you know, historical story with each lesson, and I feel like those of you who have been listening long enough could repeat it. Like, insert Roman introduction here, insert medieval monks here, insert, you know, occasional royals, insert modern revival, you know, peasants, you know, start to bottle their own wine. So, largely speaking, it's the same, uh, narrative arc here, but, you know, uh, there are always, uh, wrinkles, uh, as it were, uh, just to give you a, a geographic sense of where we are. Um, Beaujolais is at the northern end of, uh, kind of like the larger Rhone Valley region. So, um, I'm going to zoom in on France.

Hopefully no one yaks at home, but, um, you can see, uh, you can imagine the Rhone snakes its way from Lyon, uh, down to the Mediterranean. At Lyon, it splits off, um, and becomes the Rhône, and the river, uh, Seine, um, and apologies, uh, as always to the actual French speakers, uh, in our mix, but, uh, the Seine winds its way, uh, further north, um, and, uh, winds its way to, uh, the east of both Beaujolais and Burgundy, uh, uh, further to the north. So, um, Beaujolais, um, existed, you know, along these Roman trade routes. The Romans made it that far north for the sake of their viticulture. Uh, they didn't make it much further north, it should be said.

Um, but, uh, there's a famous, uh, volcano, um, at the bottom end of the Crouzon Brewery, Côte de Brewery, um, and, uh, they planted vines there. They planted vines on the hillside of Mergone and Fiori. Um, so, uh, they had their imprint, and you know, the 10 crews that we're going to cover today, they each have their own kind of mascots. Um, a number of the different mascots, most famously Julianas, um, that is the Julius, uh, of Roman fame. Um, you know, a number of them have Roman mascots, uh, as it were. Um, but, um, Beaujolais is roughly considered part of Burgundy, which pisses me off to no end, um, because, uh, as early as the 14th century, um, the kings of Burgundy were outlawing the kind of quintessential, uh, Beaujolais grape, Gamay, uh, in their region.

Yet the Beaujolais, um, you know, the merchants thereof, the winemakers thereof, you know, still forced to consider themselves vassals of, you know, this snotty wine region to the north, that looks down on them. Now, I put the cart before the horse there, uh, a bit, as I'm wont to do. Um, let's start with, you know, the region and the grape that it identifies with. So, the region, Beaujolais, um, along this northern tributary of the Rhône, uh, the grape Gamay. Uh, the Gamay story. Uh, so, Gamay is the offspring, it should be said, of Pinot Noir, um, which is, you know, the most celebrated, um, you know, one of the most celebrated and romantic, um, in Aristotelian aristocratic red grapes, uh, in the world, um, that, you know, certainly I can think of.

Um, it's the offspring of Pinot, which, you know, as, you know, early as the, um, kind of earliest, uh, area of the Middle Ages, um, was brought forth into the world by Benedictine monks, um, and occupied the, uh, largely calcareous limestone, uh, prized mid-slopes of the Cote d'Or in Burgundy. Now, uh, Pinot, um, went slumming with a, a more, um, you know, it should be said plebeian grape, planted, um, by the peasants of, uh, the region. So, the wealthy monks planting Pinot Noir, um, the peasants planting a grape called Guay Blanc. Um, and Pinot and Grüner Veltliner, um, it's kind of like a West Side Story situation, or, um, you know, you know, Capulets and Montagues, you know, uh, different families, one of high birth, one of, you know, lower stature, um, they're gonna kick boots.

And, uh, as such, um, you get all sorts of offspring, uh, when, uh, this happened. And, uh, one of those offspring, famously, is Gamay. But Gamay, um, is a much more productive grape than Pinot. Uh, it is much easier to grow, uh, than Pinot. Now, you're thinking to yourself, um, you know, that sounds like a good thing to me, but for the sake of fine wine, that's a bad thing. And Gamay emerges on the scene, um, and quickly, um, a lot of the growers adopt it, because Pinot is a huge pain in the ass to make, even though it makes, you know, tastier wines. And they adopt Gamay. And as early as 1395, this bastard, um, the left side of the portrait, Philip the Bold, he decides, you know, the Gamay is diluting the reputation of my fine wines.

And he's locked in this trade war with his brother in Champagne, or cousin, I forget. They're all related. Um, but, uh, they're locked in this trade war, and he doesn't want the reputation of his wines, uh, debased. Uh, so, as such, uh, Philip, um, he calls out Gamay, calls it a grape with this very great and terrible bitterness. Um, he claims that it's injurious to the human creature. He calls it evil and disloyal, the disloyal Gamay. That is a sobriquet that has, has, you know, kind of stuck to the varietal into the modern era. And as early as 1395, you know, he says, you know, no more Gamay in, uh, the greatest vineyards of Burgundy, uh, proper.

But a funny thing happens, because, uh, Gamay makes its way south, and, uh, for whatever reason, um, Pinot Noir does not thrive on the granite outcroppings, uh, in Beaujolais, but Gamay, uh, absolutely does. Um, now we're going to shift a bit. I want to read you a quote, uh, a quote, um, you know, and, and the regions, the grapes are always, you know, kind of, you know, just like, um, advocating, you know, tasting two wines side by side. I feel like Pinot and Gamay, you know, they always exist in opposition one to the other, um, and they share a lot in common. They're bright, you know, they're, you know, largely medium-bodied wines, they're gastronomical wines, but, you know, they have these, you know, subtly, uh, different ones to the next, and I love what Jean Bonnet has to say on the subject.

He is formerly the writer, um, for, um, the San Francisco Chronicle. Chronicle, you know, this is total non-sequitur, but they have the best, um, wine writing of any periodical, um, you know, newspaper to date. Esther Mobley runs the roost there now. Jean Bonnet is off doing his own thing and writing books, but, um, uh, he says about Beaujolais, he's saying that, you know, uh, it's a great region. Um, the crews, um, you know, were well established, uh, in, uh, the Middle Ages, and, you know, that's the truth. So, you know, as early as the 17th, 18th century, French kings drinking these wines, they're not identified as such as Beaujolais more broadly. They're identified by individual crew names, Chenasse, Moulin-Avon, uh, Morgon, um, but, you know, they are widely lauded, um, and they're quickly enshrined when France establishes its Appalachian system in 1936.

John says, uh, they were already known to produce superior wines, not as stoic as Burgundy, but more sensuous and real. Here's the goal, uh, guys. If Burgundy was a love poem, Beaujolais was sex talk, and thus had enough obvious populist appeal that snobby types were bound to turn their backs on it, even if they found themselves drinking a lot. I, I love that, uh, analogy. The, you know, immediacy of this wine, the sensuousness of it, um, is, is worth celebrating, and, you know, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, we are a sex-positive, uh, wine podcast here, um, at, uh, Tail Up Goat Wine School. So, um, without further ado, we're going to drink our first wine, and we're going to talk over, you know, production techniques when it comes to, uh, the very Beaujolais, uh, that we have, uh, been, uh, drinking, and we're going to talk over, um, two, you know, pillars of, the region, um, and the modern wine history of Beaujolais, because, uh, Beaujolais, it has this storied past, you know, it was consumed, you know, uh, locally and nationally, um, by French royals, but, um, post-World War II, its fortunes declined. Synonymous with this product called Nouveau, uh, thanks a lot, George Deboeuf, uh, who RIP just passed away, and actually, um, did a lot more good for the region than he did bad, depending on who you talk to, but, um, at any rate, um, Nouveau is wine on primer, um, so it is an early snapshot of the vintage to come. Um, it exists in many regions of France, uh, this notion of, you know, making a wine, you know, fermenting it very quickly and sending it out to market, you know, in, in November, you know, that's not unique to Beaujolais, uh, but Gamay, very well, you know, whole sex talk thing, um, you know, it's just, you know, immediate in its charms, and, you know, that immediacy lends itself nicely to this style. Sadly, um, you know, this style is taken further than it should have been, and it becomes synonymous with the region, and a, a marketing ploy, um, that is George Deboeuf's Nouveau, that is this race to take the recently bottled Nouveau from Beaujolais to Paris, and it was a race, um, you know, and George Deboeuf was a marketing genius who popularized it. You know, in the, in the 1970s and into the 1980s, you know, he makes a river of wine, largely fermented with uh industrial yeast called 71B, tastes like banana runts, and no one likes banana runts, um and, you know, sadly, uh it becomes synonymous with you know the truly delicious and you know occasionally profound wine, um that is Beaujolais itself.

Um there is fascinatingly enough around the same time a counter-narrative percolating in Beaujolais and it has everything to do with these two individuals. Uh, we're going to talk to Jules Chevet first, um, and then, uh, talk his disciple, uh, Marcel Lapierre, and, you know, uh, for this, you know, wine that is highly industrialized for this region that has suffered, its soils denuded, exhausted through the application of, um, you know, these industrial fertilizers, chemical fertilizers after World War II, you know, it is nonetheless the birthplace of the natural wine movement. So, it is both, you know, associated with this river of, you know, debased wine, so much wine that, you know, in 2001, they had, you know, they had, you know, they had, you know, distilled the bulk of it, uh, because there was just too much of it for the market.

Um, you know, in spite of that kind of modern history, um, there is this, you know, countervailing force that is, you know, the natural wine movement, um, a return to traditional vineyard practices, and a return to non-interventionist, um, winemaking in the cellar. Um, but there's a lot to unpack there. So, we're going to start with this Cuvée, uh, Jules Chevet, um, and, uh, it's a very fun wine. It is named, uh, it is a Beaujolais village, so, uh, it's a very fun wine. So, um, uh, that is to say it comes from one of 34 villages, um, that, uh, are allowed to call themselves a Beaujolais village, and I'll flash back to the map so you can get a sense of where those villages are.

Beaujolais is a larger region, um, is a, still produces a river of wine to this day. Um, in some vintages, it produces as much wine as, uh, Burgundy, the rest of the region, Burgundy, uh, to the north. Um, and, you know, that production, sadly, is still dominated by large, um, négociant firms and co-ops. And, you know, the, the bulk of the wine, uh, the majority of the wine, um, is, is still commercialized, you know, plump to this day. But there are so many exceptions we're celebrating, um, that I want to, you know, focus on those today. And, uh, Jules Chevet, um, is a, a really important, um, reason, um, for, uh, the revival in the region's fortunes. So, um, he is a fourth-generation grower. He took over his family's négociant firm at a very young age.

Um, and beginning in, uh, he was a, uh, a chemistry, uh, student. Um, in school. And beginning in 1935, he begins, uh, a collaboration with Otto Warburg, a Nobel-winning, um, uh, physiologist. Um, and Jules is interested in, um, the kind of, uh, biological underpinnings of the fermentation process, um, and, uh, his work in the vineyards. Um, and he sees, um, the, uh, kind of vineyards, um, that he is working, uh, that are exhausted by these chemical, uh, treatments. Um, and he remembers the wines of his forefathers. And, um, he notices a gap there and, you know, wonders why the wines are less than they once were, um, and wonders what the scientific underpinnings of, uh, the kind of, uh, fermentation process are.

And he, you know, is really responsible for our modern understanding of a lot of processes that are hugely important, um, to understanding how particularly, uh, red wine in Beaujolais, um, comes to the glass. And, you know, uh, those processes that we're going to talk about are malolactic conversion, and that involves the, um, in red wine and white wine, the conversion of harsher malic acid into, uh, lactic acid. And it's a secondary process that happens after the initial alcoholic fermentation. Um, sulfur additions throughout the winemaking process. Sulfur is a very important preservative, kind of locks the wine in place. It's kind of like the embalming fluid of wine. And then carbonic maceration, which we're going to talk over very briefly. Now, I want to, um, briefly discuss, you know, the pyramid that exists in Beaujolais for the sake of these wines.

So I'm drinking Beaujolais village here, and that is a geographic designation. Again, your grape, Gamay. Um, you can see the village, uh, region here. That's 34 villages. A couple of villages have the right to append their name to Beaujolais. So, uh, it could be most names are like Beaujolais Lane, um, uh, being, um, you know, one of them. Um, and, um, I'm trying to think of, you know, uh, Beaujolais Latinier. Um, it is another, uh, but largely Beaujolais village, um, is a step up from your kind of base level, uh, Beaujolais. Um, and then you have the 10 crews, uh, which are the Madonna share entities of the world, which don't go by Beaujolais at all. They go by Renier. They go by Fiery. They go by Moulin à Bon.

So you're not going to see Beaujolais Chenasse, for instance, on the label. You'll just see Chenasse and it is on you, wine consumer, to know that that, um, entails, uh, Beaujolais. Um, just like, you know, Madonna doesn't say, you know, Madonna, American pop artist with a faux English accent. She just says Madonna because everybody knows the rest. Um, uh, vis-à-vis, uh, carbonic maceration. So, uh, we're going to get a little nerdy. Um, uh, please, uh, drink, um, you know, uh, during, uh, the nerdery. Um, we talked all about, you know, uh, fermentation. We talked briefly here about malolactic conversion. Fermentation involves, uh, a, a single cell organism, yeast, um, and, and that single cell organism, it eats sugar. It creates alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Um, now that is the most, you know, kind of important way that, uh, alcohol gets to our glass for the sake of wine. There's a secondary enzymatic process. It is called carbonic maceration or, kind of faultily, uh, carbonic, um, you know, fermentation, because it's not actually a, a, a type of fermentation as such. It is better understood, um, as an, you know, a, a type of fermentation, enzymatic reaction, and what happens in, uh, carbonic fermentation or maceration is that you get a conversion, um, within whole grapes, um, of malic acid into alcohol, um, and these are two grapes so a precondition important precondition for carbonic maceration in wine is that you have whole grape clusters, so you cannot de-stem your grapes, you have whole grape clusters intact, and you just throw them into a vat the whole bunches, um, and in the absence of oxygen, so those are your two preconditions: whole grape clusters, you know stems in the mix grapes on the vine, um, you know have to be harvested by hand, um, and uh, lack of oxygen, Co2, um, often added to these sealed tanks, and in that environment, you get a conversion of malic acid, um, into alcohol within the grape itself, and what happens in that environment is that you get a bleeding of color, you get less extraction of color, uh, in the wine itself. Because,  all the polyphenols in the skins are not leached into the wine during the carbonic maceration process, um, also all those tannins are not leached into the wine so wines that are made this way they tend to be brighter and fruitier than wines made with uh traditional red wine uh fermentation and people will often distinguish within Beaujolais between um wines that are made in the wine itself and wines that are made in the wine itself; wines made in this cool carbonic style, so they cool down the tank, uh, to heighten these lighter, fruitier aromas, uh, typically fermentations that are done at cooler temperatures, they Produce more delicate fruity aromas, uh, and they contrast that style of winemaking to uh, the more Burgundy method where you're de-stemming your fruit, um, and uh, your, uh, winemaking happens in a more oxygen-rich environment and you get coarser, more tannic wines.

So on the one hand, you have something lighter, more ethereal, fruitier, and on the other hand, you have something coarser, more tannic, and bolder. Now, uh, there's no such thing as a perfect carbonic ferment, um, there's always going to be some oxygen, uh, in the mix, um, it should be said, you know, first and foremost, and you know if you just throw, um, whole grapes, whole clusters Into the mix you're going to get a little bit of carbonic so people often will work with partial carbonic so it's not the case that you have one or the other and you have a lot of people, you know, um adopting, you know, some of the wines that are made in the past, and people that are going to offer these ones to others, so that's great.

You know, I want the story of the engrosser that I know, but lot more sulfon urban Deshalb and he. And he saw that as a prescription that was kind of unique to Gamay and unique to Beaujolais. But he had myriad disciples, the most famous of them being Marcel Lapierre. And Marcel Lapierre, he, starting in the early 80s, adopts Jules Chavet's method. And he, through the force of his own personality, attracts all these other winemakers, Guy Breton, who we'll taste a wine from shortly, Jean-Paul Tivnet, Jean-Paul Yard. Kermit Lynch dubs him the Gang of Four, which is maddening. In French, they actually call them the Gang Lapierre, which is more to the point because there are always a few people left out. Yvon Mettres included in the mix often in France, Joseph Chaminard is kind of the unofficial fifth member.

So they're like a lot of unofficial members of the quote-unquote gang. What you need to know is that, you know, in the 80s, you have all these sons of this, you know, kind of backward, off the beaten path agricultural region. And they're saying, you know, we want to make wine, you know, more in the style of our grandfathers, less in the style of, you know, this post-World War II, you know, industrial, you know, chemical mode. And that is to be celebrated for these wines. And that goes hand in hand with this particular style that involves carbonic maceration, which makes these limes. You know, they're trying to create a light, fruity wine. So in Beaujolais, you have, you know, this story of terroir, which we're going to get into when we taste through our individual wines, and this story of methodology, and the story of return to the land.

So all these overlapping forces all at once. And if you're someone like myself that loves wine, it's really fun to tease those things apart and understand them. And if you want to understand, you know, natural wine for better or worse, for the sake of its abuses and for the sake of, you know, its more beneficent effects. And I think that's where this whole idea of, you know, the relationship is kind of, you on you know the industry then I think you have to trace it to its roots um, you know uh with these characters which you should pay attention to the gang of four in Beaujolais and trace it to the glass with these wines um if you're drinking both these wines at home you'll notice that they are not flawed uh, they're not mousy, they are not riddled with VA; they're fucking delicious.

Matter of fact, that's what natural wine should be. Natural wine should not be an artifice, you know, kind of propping up sloppy uh viticultural practices um that would infuriate Jules Chévet um, you know and Marcel Lapierre and you know the surviving gang members um, you know there are far too many natural wines that um are you know fundamentally you know flawed and You know, just lean into it, um, you know because it's like a cool kids in the cafeteria, oh, have you had the latest natural wine, the label is really cool, yada yada, you know, we don't want that, you know, the wine should stand on its own two feet, it should be, delicious and applaud, but you know, um, these wines have a life force, they sing, and this whole question of sulfur is really fascinating, um, you're playing with fire when you don't add sulfur to your wines, um, but uh, you know, wines unsulfured when they hit, they're thrilling, they're alive, um, you know it is, you know, uh, you know like the, you know, playing with fire in the most exhilarating Way you know when it goes off, well you know it's good fun, uh good fun, hopefully you know my nephews aren't watching this, uh you know, uh you know Nikki and Calvin do not play with fire, uh if you're at home um I covered a lot there.

We're going to taste in just a second um Zoe, do we have any questions about um you know uh the underpinnings of um you know the natural wine movement, Beaujolais, and this whole um you know persnickety carbonic maceration uh thing that I went over? Would you mind talking about how to chill different types of Beaujolais, and then also how to age different types of Beaujolais between village level nouveau within the cruise i would love to though um so i think people you know often get locked in this idea that you know uh these big you know massive you know red wines anyone's worth aging you know uh we dispel that here we try to you know strength is not about you know alcohol percentage it's not about you know extraction color in the glass game he's a thin skin grape has these massive berries that slide hasn't selected that's why philip the bold hated it's not going to make big inky ones you know these two wines in particular you know very light and floral and then if you're adding that whole cold carbonic thing To mix, you're going to get something that's paler in color, um, that's not to say that they can't age. So, uh, the cuvée Jewel Chevay 2014 showing very well, it's kind of a mature wine. Um, we're going to taste a Fleurie that's also from 2014, it's a very classic vintage which is to say, you know, um, the you know representative as of Beaujolais as it was once upon a time less representative of the the new global warming reality, but, you know, these wines will age, even the more humble village level ones. The Cru will age for decades on end.

They're beautiful. You know, we had a 98 Chaminade Margon at Tail of Goat once upon a time. It was gorgeous. It was a little fickle, you know, from one bottle to the next. There was variation, but that's true with a lot of older wines. You know, again, there are no great old wines, only great old bottles. You know, that is a very apt truism. You know, store them at the same temperature as you do everything else, cellar temp 55 degrees, you know, or, you know, there and put them in the basement, put them in a cold closet. Light is actually, you know, even a more pernicious enemy in a lot of ways than, you know, warmer temps. I'm going to move on to the Cruz, though, because I want to talk over these, you know, individual spirit animals.

And, you know, I promised to consider, you know, the merits of the more kind of serious expressions of Beaujolais. And I want to do that. And we're going to start here with one of the gang members. So we're going to start with the Renier. For those of you drinking at home, this is the wine that I'm working through at the moment. And Guy Breton. I'm going to put a picture of Guy up because he's a beautiful man, Guy Breton. I sent around a picture of him, or I showed a picture. of him in a video that we posted on our social medias earlier this week. I said that I thought he looked like Meatloaf. We had a commenter that opined more Captain Beefheart. I thought that was a good, you know, 60s, 70s musical deep dive.

But that is Guy Breton. To his friends, he is Petit Max. He's a force of nature. His hair is amazing. He makes wines that are kind of like, you can't find them approachable. The Gang of Four, historically based in Morgon. And I'm going to pull up an image of your 10 crews. Now, again, we are at the northern edge of the kind of larger region of Beaujolais here for the sake of the 10 crews. And so the 10 crews are all at the northern edge of the region. What's really cool is that the wine nerds in Beaujolais are really into, you know, their soil typing when it comes to their wines. So they recently did this like amazing mapping thing that involved 15,302 soil bores, 979 soil pits to really codify, you know, not only are we dealing with granite, but you know, what type of granite are we dealing with?

You know, are we dealing with more alluvial soils? There's quite a bit of limestone in Beaujolais. There's some volcanic soil, particularly, in a brewery and then famously in Morgon, in one of its most kind of storied vineyards. And they really wanted to get a better sense of that so that they could, you know, double down on, you know, the unique dimension of terroir from one vineyard to the next in their region. So Guy Breton and the Gang of Four, all based in Morgon, one of the most famous crews. You can think of it as one of the most famous breweries in the region. So, you know, we're going to cover in a second, is the King, Fleury, the Queen, the rest are, you know, lesser nobles, but, you know, content as such in their lesser nobility.

We're going to drink our Rainier to start off with here. You can see Rainier there. We are kind of rock hounds here at Tail of Goat Wine School. I'm going to share this amazing map with you. You're not going to be able to decipher it at all. So, this is the whole region. You can see granites are yellow through red. So, a shit ton of granite, especially in the north. Your blue rocks, Côte d'Abruy, those are more volcanic. And then your limestones are very shades of lighter, kind of like green as such. You can see, and you can see like the villages don't entirely correspond with the crews, which is a bit maddening, but you can see Morgon here and then Rainier just to its west.

You are kind of, there's a ridge of mountains to the west in Auvergne, west of Beaujolais. So, the vineyards of Rainier are at elevation compared to the vineyards of Morgon. We're going to get even more nerdy here with a Rainer-specific village map. Yeah, hold your breath here. You know, they drilled so many boreholes, guys. We really have to reward the effort here. This is, get ready for all the soil types of the 10 crews. Double downing, doubling down on it. So, this is the village Rainier corresponds to the crew. Extreme close-up, Wayne's World style. The Guy Breton vineyards surround the village itself. This wine comes from two different plots, 100 plus year old vines that he inherited from his grandfather and a 30 plus year old plot adjacent to the village where all the soils are granitic.

Because you're at elevation compared to Morgon, you get later ripening and you get, you know, kind of lighter wines characterized by, you know, kind of a tanginess of fruit and freshness. Furthermore, this is made in that cold carbonic style, which is going to accentuate some of those brighter, more fruity overtones. Zoe, what, pray tell, did you taste in this particular offering from Morgon? From Les Petits Macs, the Guy Breton Rainier. I love these wines. They are always so very chewy to me, as we were talking about earlier offline. I think that just like that sanguine that you were saying comes from the pink granitic soils, like really comes through. And then the fact that it's just unfiltered and filtered, it's really like chewy in those tannins.

I get a lot of like what we used to call like organic fruit leather, and a very much like a dried fruit complexion. So it's a lot of that complexity, even though it still is like quite bright and like lighter and ethereal. Yeah, there's always something primal to me about these wines. You know, you know, it evokes that like lighter bite response. I don't know, but like there's a bloodiness here. It's like, you know, it is, you know, distinctly sanguine, distinctly briny. Tastes like licking, you know, rocks in its own kind of mineral driven way. There's something thrilling to me about Bretón's wines. I find them very approachable, but also kinetic. You know, like they have this whole light force, you know, behind them. You know, and, you know, maybe that's because I like his hair.

But maybe it says something about, you know, the wine as well. And, you know, I think it does what Beaujolais does best, which is it has that immediacy. It's charming. It's, you know, something, you know, you know, it's what the French call goillelon. It's quaffable. But it's equally, you know. Interesting. You know, you know, it's a wine that you could linger over and, you know, tease apart for the sake of, you know, different dimensions of taste. And I really I love that about it. And it should be said that this notion of blending these vineyards is, you know, very typical within Cruze. So even among the Gang of Four, they rarely until, you know, the last decade released single vineyard offerings. Now that has changed.

You know, both Guy Breton and more famously, Jean Foyard, have doubled down on single vineyard bottlings. But historically, you would, you know, pick things apart a bit and, you know, make a, you know, individual Cru wine. You know, that was, you know, a little more chorus or a little more, you know, kind of, you know, acapella with, you know, four or five members than a single voice. Now, that is changing some, you know, as we drill more void holes and try to develop a more kind of postgraduate, you know, kind of appreciation for the region. But, you know, I think this, you know, from old times. Older vines, you're going to get that more savory, gnarled, you know, concentration on this. But, you know, there's enough fleshiness here.

And, you know, that's something that you're going to get from those, you know, still mature, still old enough at 30 plus years. But I like that combination. It's honestly something that Belgians do a lot in blending beer, you know, younger stock and older stock. And the two round each other out, you know, really beautifully. Now, I have a really fun box of rocks here. And, you know, you can't see this at home. But there are 10. 10. Different, you know, individual component slots here. Danny Fisher, I apologize. This is like the TV tray that we borrowed from our neighbors and never returned. Only it's way more amazing because it's representative of the 10 different crews in Beaujolais. That's right.

We've got all the different types of granite represented in a box, you know, which lends itself naturally to the Kevin Spacey, you know, Brad Pitt. What's in the box? Well, it is essentially the 10 crews in a box here. Very excited about it. I'm going to, you know, hold the rocks up for you as we go through them. I'm sure it will be as rewarding for you at home as it was for the servers when I made them, passed them around during our wine training. Starting, you got it, with Rainier. So various types of pink granite here. This is Rainier. I'm not going to lick the rock. I feel like I should. Maybe I will. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the minerality to it. You know, slightly saline, you know, certainly representative of, you know, the wine itself.

But we're talking a lot about granite. I think we should try to kind of more fully understand granite before we move on. And this is, you know, cut and pasted, or I'm quoting a wine blog here writing about granite. So for those of you playing along at home, you know, you get three types of rock, you know, sedimentary, sedimentary, metamorphic, and then igneous. Granite is what's called an intrusive igneous rock, which is to say it is, you know, lava, essentially, but lava that cools and hardens inside the earth, as opposed to extrusive igneous rocks, which, you know, hit the surface and cool that way. So what is so special about granite there? I'm reading now. I'm quoting. Geology students learn it in basic classes. It is a coarsely crystalline igneous rock.

It's formed under immense heat and pressure conditions far below the earth's surface. A molten rock mass cools slowly, and crystals of various minerals are nipped together in a tight mass. The actual composition can vary based on the chemical mix of this molten soup. It all becomes quite complex, and there are many rocks classified as granitoid in character. Back to the essence of granite itself. It's composed largely of quartz, feldspar, and minor components of mica, hornblende, and other minerals. Another mineral that's very important in Beaujolais is manganese, and we'll get into that in a second. We most often associate granite with its pink hue. That is because the feldspar in granite contains an abundance of sodium and exhibits a pink color that stands out next to the clear white crystals and the black micas.

A study of how igneous rocks form showed that as the molten mass cools, micas crystallize first, followed by feldspar, followed by quartz. But when they weatherize, they cool. They decompose at a rate inverse to their formation. So the quartz is actually the last to degrade, mica the first. So you get degradation of finer particles before the coarser ones. In vineyard soils, what does that equal? Because the vines don't grow on these hard rocks. Vines need weathered rock. They need minerals. They need rock plus air plus water plus a little dash of organic material. So it should be said that granite tends to devolve into coarser sand. And that kind of floats its way to the top of this coarser sand. And then the finer minerals, you know, they compose, you know, the deeper substrates.

But that gives you great water shedding properties in sandy soils. And it gives you great heat retention in sandy soils. And that's something that Gamay really loves. And then from one crew to the next, you get, you know, different mineral components. And then different degrees of, you know, kind of finer, you know, sands or, God forbid, you know, other minerals. Silt, you know, or, you know, even finer particulates in the mix. And that, you know, at the end of the day, you know, how heavy these soils are versus, you know, sand is actually pretty light soil at the end of the day. You know, it determines what the wines taste like. So we're going to switch gears. We're going to move from, you know, the rock you saw earlier to a different rock in Chenasse.

And move from Regnier. And I didn't cover the spirit animal here. So Regnier named after, wait for it. Gallo Roman nobleman Reginus gets his moment in the sun in the form of Regnier, which is the newest crew, which is only endowed in 1988. Moving on to Chenasse. The spirit animal in Chenasse is the oak. Chenasse, one of my favorite crews. It is actually the smallest crew. And this is your bottle. From the brothers Théardin. I fucking love them. Pretty good looking dudes, too. You see the brothers Théardin. Sorry, Zoe, not quite as good looking as Jean-Paul Thibnay's son, Charles Thibnay, one of the most attractive men in the wine industry I've ever seen. I'll pull up a picture of him later, maybe. But, you know, strapping lads.

They're actually from southern Beaujolais, but they have a toehold in Chenasse, which is kind of further north in the Loire Valley. They went to viticultural school, or actually one of them stayed on the family farm. But Paul Henry, to your left there, went to viticultural school. And then his brother, Charles, joined later. And very much in thrall. They're kind of like the next generation after the Gang of Four, working in the same style, kind of cold carbonic. So same viticultural regime, the sake of this wine, but different terroir. You are in Chenasse, which is adjacent to Moulin à Vent, the king. Chenasse has a storied history. Philip V, King of France, as early as the 14th century, said, you know, this land is too good for its woods. Chenasse meaning oak.

Let's knock them down and plant vines. That is the origin story of Chenasse. You know, in the 18th and 19th centuries, you know, your Parisian nobles were asking for it, you know, by name. And, you know, this particular offering comes from, actually, a single vineyard. So Chenasse, one of the more obscure of the ten crews, not widely known outside of the region. I love that the brothers are done doubling down on that. They say, you know, you don't know Chenasse. F**k you. We're going to do a single vineyard version of this. You know, we're going to make you learn Blemont. So this is Chenasse. We are leaning into, you know, our typicity. And we are in Blemont here.

And we're actually on, you know, it should be said that this little tributary, this zone is significant because we have left the more heavy granitic soils and entered more alluvial soils here. What does that mean? What is this alluvium you speak of? Well, alluvium, you know, are, you know, soils transported by rivers. They tend to be heavier and richer in organic material. As such, they make wines that tend to be fleshier and fruitier, which is a great segue to Zoe. Zoe, what do you taste in this particular offering? I think it's super bright. I get all of the rose petals. I know it's an associative property, but because there's a lot of alpine there, like I do get like a freshness of like an alpine cone. Sorry, a pine cone.

I have like a nice like brown sugar cookie as well. It has this like nice and like sweet roundness to it. But it also is quite salty. And I really enjoyed that like saline coming through as well. Yeah. So we. I think the name dropped to manganese earlier. Manganese, actually, fascinating enough, is poisonous to vines. It retards growth in the vineyard, produces more concentrated fruit. And it's associated emotionally with this saline character that I definitely get here. I love how like fruit forward this wine is. It's got this like raspberry like juiciness to it. That's just fun to me. You know, it's just like, you know, juicy and pleasurable. And, you know, just like intensely fruity, but not in a cartoonish way. And that's always hard to do.

I think it's always hard to do, you know, really ripe fruit without devolving into like Kool-Aid man territory. And, you know, this manages that. You know, it's just like sophisticated fruit. And, you know, it's joyful. And I find that all the Théardame wines I've had, I've had that. And then you, you know, reference that a little bit of spice character that's there as well. You know, I definitely get that as well. Maybe like a little ginger snappy thing on the back end. It's not profound and certainly not attributable to Oak at all because, you know, we're, you know, entirely, you know, kind of raisin and neutral Oak for the sake of this one. But, you know, there's this fleshiness to this wine. There's this roundness to it.

You know, it's just, you know, it's immediately delicious. And, you know, it's one of the, like, who wouldn't like this wine? I feel like you would have to hate fun, you know. And it's fascinating to compare it to the Regnier for me because it's a little less brooding. It's, you know, a little more fleshy, you know, a little more driven by that red fruit character than that, you know, you know, salty, sinister, fruits of the forest character that Breton's wine is. But I think, you know, that's attributable to some extent to the elevation you get in Regnier. And then, you know, there's more alluvial soils in this particular plot, this particular corner of Chenasse. Any thoughts on these two wines? From folks enjoying them at home, though?

I know there's a lot of comments on the Fleury and the Moulin Avant when we get there. Let's move on, then. We can move on. I didn't share, this is Chenasse, guys. This is, you know, fun with pink granite. I really need, I need to stop. I'm breaking out the phone for the sake of our light. And I imagine that this is, like, the least rewarding viewing. It's one of the least rewarding viewings. One of the least rewarding viewing experiences that we've offered since I tried to show you the glow-in-the-dark label in our infamous Sauvignon Blanc class. But, yeah, under, under, so this is, this is, so this is probably more reflective of the granite that is on the opposite side of the tributary from this particular vineyard.

But it's strewn with, you know, there's like a pink hue in the mix here. But largely what in Morgon they would call, you know, these rotted rocks, pied-de-ray, which is kind of like blacker in hue. And, you know, gives structure to the wines on this side of the bank. So, without further ado, so that's that is Chenasse, guys. I'm not going to lick that one. Moving on now to Fleury, because there are a lot of questions about it. And, you know, want to get to questions. Fleury is the queen; it should be said that I think a lot of the wines that we've had in the past, they've been called the queen. And a lot of that is has to do with like a misguided translation of Fleury.

So, you know, you think Fleury, you think bleu, you think flower. Sorry, guys. Another Roman, Roman general Floricum, stand up; I bet you never imagined it in your own lifetime. But one of the greatest games in the world is, is named after you to this very day. But Fleury is thought to possess this like pretty florality. I think this wine definitely does. I need you to understand, though, about this wine, that it is made differently than the ones we have consumed so far. So this comes from a merchant family. They purchased land in Fleury. And they are Burgundian OGs in the heart of Burgundy, in Volnais, in the heart of the Côte de Beaune. That is Michel Laffray on the right there. It's three generations of the family.

In this case, the estate is named after the generation currently running the show. That's Frédéric in the middle. And his wife Chantal is Bial. So Frederic Lafarge and Chantal Bial. That's their daughter on the left. Michel Lafarge is this like French OG I love. He served in the French military, as is a Frenchman's duty, after World War II. He was Mayor of Beaune. He served in France for several decades. There's this long tradition in a lot of these smaller French winemaking villages of this crossover between politics and winemaking. And in France, they have this deep reverence for their mayors. It's not very different than our perception of mayors here. It's actually a catapult in a lot of instances to kind of larger role in national politics.

And there's something like really stately and noble about his generation of French vineyards. He is an early adopter of biodynamics in Burgundy. And Frederic and Chantal brought that paradigm with them when they came to Beaujolais. And they purchased land in Fleury. This is the first vintage of this wine they released. Single vineyard offering. But it is made not in the cold carbonic style. It is made more in the Burgundian style. So it's a little bit of a whole cluster in the mix, about 10 to 20% depending on the vintage. But largely de-stemmed. And certainly less carbonic maceration in the mix. So it's a very different character, this wine. Not only because of Fleury as such. But because of the way the wine is made.

And it is the case throughout Beaujolais that as you go from the south to the north. Especially with communes of Moulin-Lavan and Fleury. You see winemakers working more in this Burgundian style than the Jules Chavet cold carbonic style. And some of that, you know, fits the terroir. Fits the, you know, kind of fruit that comes off the vine. But, you know, some of that is, you know, just kind of a product of history. And then we're going to share the map again. Because, you know, they did all that work. They dug all those boreholes. And it's kind of cool here. Because you can actually see the single vineyard. In this case we saw Bleumont before. Bel Air. So this is Fleury. A lot of granite. A lot of pink granite again.

And Bel Air actually is not a very difficult translation. You know, the good air. And as you can imagine, you know, you're at elevation here. So, you know, these are contour lines coming up from the, you know, tributary. So you're actually approaching Cherub. Which would be the Cru here. And both Cherub and Regnier, they have higher elevation vineyards. So there's a freshness about this wine. Because of the single vineyard that it comes from, but it has a different character. It should be said. Because of that, more kind of Burgundian vinification. Zoe, let's do your tasting notes on this one. And then let's kick it to the commentary. For the sake of all the questions. Totally. I thought that this was much more structured. You've said Burgundian. And that's exactly how I put that down.

I thought that the concentration of fruit was much bigger than we've seen in the Chenasse and the Rangier. And not to mention, it was much more like purple. Leading like plums. Or currants. And blackberries. Someone said that it tastes like celery. And I thought that was really interesting. Because I put down Trader Joe's has a crisp that tastes like Thanksgiving stuffing. Yeah. Totally tastes like that. Fantastic. That's a great tasting note. I also get like a caraway. Or like a celery salt thing. With this wine. I think that's a killer tasting note. And I think that's why it's so popular. We're in the Thanksgiving season. And Beaujolais just wants to go with Thanksgiving food. For reasons that. I mean, I don't think the people who established the holiday after the Civil War imagined as much.

I don't think they were drinking a lot of Beaujolais. But at any rate, yeah. It's this wonderful kismet. And that savory herbaceousness. Something that this wine certainly has in spades. It's a great tasting note. From the comments, some people think it's like a little bit more barnyardy. And has like a sweet earthiness. Ooh. Just you wait until you try it. But yeah. It definitely has a little more of that. Yeah. Well, that's going to go into a severe different direction. But tasting of vanilla. There's like some lightness to it, like grapefruit. Texturally, it had a little bit more of like a pin prickly to it, not necessarily fizzy. But it just has that liveliness to it. I will say too. I think that structure. That's something you touched on, Zoe. Yeah.

You know, there's a little spice to the Chenasse. You know, the Rainier was downright ethereal. This has distinct tannic grip. You know. It has that, you know, drying quality to it. You know. On the finish. You know, that we typically associate with red wine. So, you know. I think that's important to understand about it. You know. I think equally for me though. It has this duality. It has that, you know, prettiness. I think there is something floral about it. It's more, you know, purple flowers. Lilacs. And then, you know, purple fruits too. Less of the red berries that you got with the Chenasse. And, you know, something grappier. You know. Which sounds facile in talking about a wine. But, you know, grappier in a Welsh's sense. But, you know, not in a bad way.

And then, you know. There is like something savory. Distinctly savory about it as well. Fleurie. You're getting into, you know, kind of a pure harder rock. You know. Kind of a place here. And then, you know, quartz veins as well. So, I know. Rich, you know. Experience it for yourself at home. But this is Fleurie here. A little more quartz in the mix. You're getting the harder rock. And it should be said that, you know, that quartz. You know. It grades slower. You know. And that will give you structure in your wines. You know. So, you know. That harder rock. Those thinner top soils. You know. Those more readily draining kind of top soils will give you structure. Grip in a wine. So, you know. There is a bit of a kind of serendipity.

Between the fact that, you know. You're coming to this place. You know. That creates fruit that has more structure. And then, you know. This wine making regime that, you know. Further accentuates it. So, you know. I always find it. Especially in the old world fascinating. When, you know. That, you know. Kind of wine making methodology grows up with, you know. This distinct terroir. And it's always hard to pull one from the next. And, you know. Living in the mystery of it all is really where it's at. We're going to move on to Moulin Avant. Moulin Avant. The spirit animal here is a little more straightforward. This is Domaine D'Achon. It's the windmill. But before we latch on to the windmill. I think we just need to, you know. Give proper prop.

Proper, you know. To Bernard D'Achon. One of the greatest mustaches in the wine world. Bernard made wine from 1967. Took over from his father. Through to 2007. When we handed off the reins. To his current protégé. Who's kind of, you know. Maintained a lot of consistency. For the sake of the house style. But this is brought in by Kermit Litch. And on his website. I love they say that it looks like Bernard's mustache. Has seen the inside of a thousand wine glasses. I love that. But, you know. We salute you, you know. Bernard. Long may your mustache reign, buddy. But, you know. I think it's something I love about Beaujolais too. You know. These are farmers making wine. You know. Nobody's driving a fucking Benz. You know. They're of the earth. You know. They're village people. There's something, you know. Really, you know. Kind of hobbit-y about the place. You know. It's a land of rolling hills and a lovely place.

They come to, you know. Brawl a lot. So, you know. There's this importer traveling with these two winemakers in Beaujolais. They were on their way to León. And he said that they got in this like heated argument. Made him stop the car. They got out of the car. They fought like brothers. You know. For solid, like five to ten minutes. They had their dust up. They got back in the car. Said nothing. And they were fine the rest of the day.

They were just like upstarts. And you know. Kind of unpretentious people, and you know, wine needs more of that. You know. Wines of the earth that are unpretentious. Without further ado, so this is from Moulin Avant. Moulin Avant is the king of the cruise. We're going to share the rock first actually. You know. Because it's so rewarding for you at home to see these. I hope you can see. There's a shit ton of quartz in this. All the quartz. And then near the namesake windmill itself, there's a shit ton of manganese. Manganese has all sorts of industrial uses. There are manganese mines in this region. It should be said. And because you know, the soils are riddled with it. It has this. Again, this inhibiting effect on the local. Soils.

The local soils and the local vineyards, as such. You know. The fruit is obscenely concentrated, and you know. You get way more structure in Moulin than you do almost anywhere else. Throughout, you know. Kind of Beaujolais proper. I'm just going to share the larger map because I don't actually know where the particular state is located. But if you scroll north, I'll show you the windmill. It's hugely maddening. It should be said that Moulin Au Vent, the Cru here, actually encompasses the village of Chenasse. So, the Cru Chenasse is not actually in Chenasse. You know. Mind blown. But you can see Moulin Au Vent here. A lot of red and orange. So all the hard granite. For the sake of these wines. This wine is made with quite a bit of whole cluster.

But it's made a much more oxidative style. So they circulate the juice. Which invites oxygen into the mix. And then the structure of this wine is just hugely different. I think than anything we tried before. Zoe. What are your tasting notes? For the sake of this mustachioed gem. Barnyard. Crunchy leaves. This is where I get that like Ginger snap cookie as well. Balsamic. More poop. You know. In a pretty floral way. The poop you want to drink. Not the one you want to hold your nose up at. What's the French term? Merde. Everything just sounds sexier in French. But merde. They say there's an old French winemaker's expression. Just in the north. The good Burgundy has the souisson de merde. The smell of the outhouse. As it were.

But they consider that a benevolent thing. As opposed to something to shy away from. This is the. You know. The Instagram bait. This is the windmill. It doesn't work anymore. It's just a. You know. It's like a billboard for the region. But these are the individual vines. I haven't touched on this before. But you know. What's also really amazing about this region is that there's a lot of really old vine material. So, you saw the beautiful vines. And those are the vines with the leaves turning color. As they are now. But traditionally in Beaujolais, the vines aren't trained in rows. They're trained in goblets. So these are the vineyards; that the brothers are done presiding over. This is kind of a mini-goblet. But the tradition is just an individual stake until these head-trained vines can, you know, support themselves.

And then they evolve a life of their own, like olive trees, like humans. And you know, the wines we tried so far come from very old vines. I talked over the centenarian vines, 40 plus year old vines. For the sake of the Lafarge ranges from vines planted in the 50s. Through to the 70s. This one maxes out at 80 years old. So you know, this wealth of viticultural history in this region, you know. The bulk of vines cannot be worked historically, historically sadly. In terms of recent history, post World War II, a lot of chemical treatments. But for the sake of the wines we are tasting today, none of that. None of that. What does Biden say? None of that malarkey. None of that malarkey. Here, but you know, there is a lot of great tradition to be reclaimed. For the sake of these wines.

Not one of the sexy names. You know. Not one of the natural wine. You know. Kind of in crowd. You know. But you can't tell me this wine doesn't taste natural. You can't tell me that it's not of the earth. You can't tell me that it's not both like rustic. Sophisticated and charming all at once. And I. You know. I want that out of a wine. And you know. This just delivers. What else you got? For the way the question. Just stellar tasting notes. Just on the Moulin Avant. Everyone thinks that it tastes a little bit like the soil from Gary, Indiana. My apologies for anyone. Gary. A lot of like blueberry. Brambly fruits. A lot of ideas. That's a great one. Indeed. Heidi wins with a poop from Satan's cabana boy.

. These are all very good. These are all very good tasting notes. I feel like this has been. Zoe and I often lament the fact. That you know. People are somewhat coy when it comes to tasting notes. Maybe we just need to find the right wines. It could be that we just need to find the right wines. Because you guys are. You know. Between the celery and Satan's cabana boys. Really over delivering. When it comes to tasting notes. When it comes to the tasting notes today. You know. But I do. You know. I think furthermore. Kind of. It redeems my faith in this region for the sake of these wines. Because they're so evocative. And you know. A lot of people judge complexity in wine. You know. By you know.

How many descriptors they can throw at it. So you know. Even. They do that in the WSCT program. So you know. Like the more adjectives you can throw at something. You know. The more complex it is. And you know. These are you know. Definitely you know. Very multifaceted offerings. But you know. Multifaceted and widely refreshing. And widely drinkable. And widely food friendly. And we haven't talked at all about Beaujolais in food. But you know. I think you know. Usually rewarding. For the sake of these wines. So I'm going to toast it out. You know. I talked. We you know. I briefly you know. Dropped the sex talk reference. This is from the same article. Jean Bonnet. And I like what he has to say about you know. The place that Beaujolais occupies.

In particular. So Jean says that Cru Beaujolais, which describes wines that come from one of ten villages, of which we've explored four so far, has become a juggernaut of postmodern wine; it not only serves as this current generation's substitute for the red Burgundy, which we can no longer afford, but something more. A totem of how wine itself has changed. The things we once considered informal side acts, wines built for their upfront drinkability and made without status makers like New Oak, are now perfectly acceptable and embraced as great wines. So I just wanted to toast for you know, wines made without pretension, wines made in the spirit of upfront drinkability, you know. We all need more of that in our own lives. And I hope you're enjoying it at home, so cheers to you all and drinking Beaujolais!

I need to; I was utterly unprepared for the post daylight savings time situation, you know. Light out situation. I feel like I look particularly pallid today. Without the lights, I think. Everybody shield your eyes. Zoe's gonna turn on. Adjust my light scheme. Thank you, Zoe. Victory! Yeah. I wandered into the wrong light like like Cher and Clueless. So at any rate, now you can see me. Zoe, I feel like we've exhausted a lot of the questions that we had. I hope you all are just enjoying the wines. It should be said, I hope that, you know, you're pleasantly surprised by these wines to the extent that, you know, you haven't had them before. I know we have a lot of Beaujolais stands in the mix already, and God bless you, but if you're not one already, you know, please, you know, if you like these, drink more of them because, you know, the the wine world bends to your will.

The mere fact that you ask for these wines and want to drink them, you know, means that, you know, more people like the brothers Théardin and, you know, the Diachon disciples of the world you know can thrive and and people that, you know, are inspired by them can continue to find a market for their wines, you know, in the United States and globally. So drink more Beaujolais in all, in all seasons, but it is a killer Thanksgiving wine. It is kind of like a bit of a trope, a cliché at this point, but, you know, one worth reverting to. What else you got, Zoe? When did the Beaujolais Nouveau celebration start? That's an excellent question and I'm excited to further explore that this Thursday. I think it's been ongoing.

So George Duboeuf latched on to that as a marketing gimmick. I think it's something they've always celebrated locally. He latched on to this particular tradition whereby the wine itself, like the first, cask was delivered from Beaujolais to Paris and there was like a race and George Duboeuf being the marketing genius that he was, you know, saw opportunity. He publicized that, and then he globalized it, and that happened starting in the 50s. I don't know when the race itself started, and I'm excited to tease that out myself for Thursday's soiree, but, you know, the notion of you know, this early release is, you know, in a lot of ways as old as wine itself, but, you know, this particular marketing fad is very much a post-World War II phenomenon and in terms of its globalization is very much an outgrowth of the 70s.

And I feel like a lot of the things that we take for granted that way are outgrowths of the 70s. For better or worse. Can you distinguish a percentage of whole cluster blinds? Like if something is only like 15 percent versus something like 75, is it that apparent for you? I think for I think if you're clued into yes, and no, so that's a great question. So I think you would need like I don't want to give myself too much credit as a taster. I feel like I would need preconditions. Okay. Whole cluster does a lot of really interesting things, so there are two different variables here so there's the one that's whole cluster and then the one that's like, uh, this cold carbonic, and they're not, they're different, and it's really maddening, and people use them um concurrently.

So um, carbonic maceration refers to this you know, very specific regime whereby you don't crush anything, you introduce CO2, uh, typically if you're working like uh, the gang, you know, used to and their disciples do now; you keep things cold, you know, and it creates a particular set of conditions that creates carbonic maceration, you know, and carbonic maceration is one thing, but whole cluster often uh refers to using stems so throwing stems into the mix, and, and, stems are high in potassium which will tend to raise the pH in a wine; um, the same will happen with carbonic maceration because a carbonic maceration essentially, um, the enzymatic process eats malic acid to produce alcohol, um, in the there's no yeast.

In the mix, um, so you get wines with a higher pH, um, stems themselves, um, you know tend to give this herbal character to wine that I adore, um, and and, uh, I can identify that, I find that, I can identify that as a signature, and you know, I think, you know, for you tasting at home, I think it's pretty, the difference between, you know, on one hand, you know, these two wines, um, and you know, this wine, I don't, uh, you know, I think I could just serve you those blind, and if I said, you know, uh, you know, put these two, you know, I'm going to create two islands, you know, divide these wines, you know, by species, you know, I think, you pretty readily You know, put these wines on the same island, and then put this wine on a different island.

I think you know that would be readily apparent. You know the trick of it is to you know then attach a name to that island, which in this case is is called Carbonic Um, and that whole cluster thing. Um, I find I taste it, you know, in uh Roan wines a lot so um for the sake of Grenache, which is uh really great. You know flash forward because we're going to taste taste through some uh wines from the Southern Roan next week up and down um uh a lot of times they'll work with whole clusters but not with Carbonic so they'll throw stems in the mix for the sake of Grenache and I love stemmy, uh, Grenache.

Um, and I actually, I tend to gravitate towards the those wines so, um, you know at first I noticed the difference when I was tasting things and they tasted more herbal, um, and and I liked them for that, um, and then you know I read the specs on the wine and it was you know uh, you know partial whole cluster or full whole cluster, and you know I came to associate what I liked with a particular technique, and you know I think that's the that's the goal of it is to, you know drink enough and then you know do enough um, you know reading that, you know, you come to make those associations and um, in the cellar.

you know, in an enlightened way, I talk about you know the process of a wine being made and and how that expresses uh in the glass. Um now, that will express differently for Gamy it does Grenache blends, uh but there is congruity there. And, and I think a good taster, yes at the end of the day, just to answer the question circuitously will be able to taste um a certain amount of whole cluster in the glass. It doesn't it doesn't always work, just to say that like you know, I like whole cluster, yes, I like whole cluster, but um, you can go overboard. Um and people talk about um, you know, stems and they'll talk about like nerdy things like the lignification of stems lignification just refers to the fact of stems going from you know green and underripe to lignified which is to say like um brown and and you know basically dried out um and you know the dried out ones being gold and the green ones being niche um and yeah there's some truth to that you know that's that's it there's some folly to that um there's gross oversimplification there but like you can overdo whole cluster you know just like anything else in life so um i think that's about it for for questions i think oh great well i'm just gonna sit in the window and drink more beaujolais um i hope that you All are enjoying your Beaujolais um at home, uh Zoe, uh just in the name of shameless self-promotion, uh we'll be uh holding down the fort uh tonight, uh uh for the sake of to-go orders um we were preparing for wine that never came or for rain that never came um uh and so we're takeout only tonight um in the absence of uh in-person dining uh so um if you don't want to venture forth yourself, we're on Caviar, you can come in and see Zoe um you know she may right now have a glass of Beaujolais herself in hand while fulfilling orders but uh yeah uh we're here for food as well if you're so inclined thank you for uh drinking with us uh today and further appreciating uh the uh great joy uh the guilty uh pleasure um that is beaujolais cheers to you all.