Please don't forget about the 2006 Beaujolais vintage

2/20/2008 -

2006 has provided some lovely wines in the Beaujolais. They will not be the long agers or have the same serious structure as the 2005's but does every vintage have to be the vintage you sock away for your grandchildren? We need something to drink while we are trying to make our grandchildren, right? I was just in Deauville for perhaps the biggest natural wine fair in the world and of course Mathieu Lapierre was there who is Marcel's son. For those of you not in the know, Marcel Lapierre is considered the king of "real" Beaujolais. Not the Beaujolais of Georges Dubouef but Beaujolais done in the Gang of Four (Thevenet, Foillard, Breton, Lapierre) style, based on the work of Jules Chauvet the legendary father of French natural wine. In brief he taught a long cold fermentation with no sulfur dioxide protected by carbon dioxide allowing the the wild yeast to do their aromatic work. As a result his process the aromas and taste are much purer than they would be if there was a higher level of sulfur.

The 2006 Morgon is a dazzling bottle and the way it showed at Deauville made me want to race home and write an e-mail and share it with you, you lucky customers, who will have this gem to drink over the next 6-8 years. Just bursting with pure red fruits on a lovely silken texture. The purity of this wine is just dazzling and of all the Beaujolais Cru's this is the most "Pinot-like." Rumor has it that this batch that was sent to America was bottled with little or no sulfur. This is a change as that cuvèe is usually sold in France and some lucky Americans hand carry (well now put in check in luggage) back home and treasure this magical elixir. Well this is a gem and another great vintage for Lapierre's Morgon so act quick because all we have is a hair under 10 cases and then it is all gone till the 2007 rolls in.