Score : 86/100
Check out our article about the New 2017 Vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau:
2017 Beaujolais Nouveau is Here ! Let’s Celebrate the New Vintage
This year, (lucky me!), I was lucky enough to taste not one but two Beaujolais Nouveau wines from Georges Duboeuf, side by side.
Believe it or not: Yes, there is Beaujolais Nouveau and Beaujolais Nouveau, not all are the same!
The one we’re looking at here is a Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau as opposed to the ‘standard Beaujolais Nouveau’.
Beaujolais-Villages is, generally speaking, a more Northern and hillier part of the region that the Southern plains of the Beaujolais region, therefore where wines tend to be a little more concentrated and richer.
The Nouveau primeur wine (released very early after harvest, we’re tasting 2016 here already) makes the same distinction between simple Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, with slightly different producing areas and taste profile characteristics. So does Georges Duboeuf, one of the biggest and most famous wine producer in the area.
For the full perspective, read our review of 2016 Georges Duboeuf ‘standard’ Beaujolais Nouveau.
So how does this 2016 Georges Dubeouf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau taste like ?
The answer is in the tasting notes :
The color is quite intense for a Nouveau. Dark red with much purple hue giving it much intensity.
The nose is also intense, and dominated by dried-banana aromas. It’s got dark cherry and strawberry notes too, and a sustained vinosity.
The palate is fuller bodied than the Beaujolais Nouveau, bigger shoulders, oilier texture, and more importantly more tannins. While the Beaujolais Nouveau is all about fruit and flows through your mouth and throat with ease, this one imposes its presence and weight much more on the palate.
The finish appears a little vegetal and drying though, before a burst of fruit on the finish.
This is therefore an intermediary between a serious Beaujolais Villages wine (not Nouveau or released early) and a Beaujolais Nouveau. It has all the fruit and the excitement of tasting the newly-released vintage, one of the first of the Northern hemisphere to hit the market, but with some weight and tannic structure only terroirs from the Villages can deliver.
An unpretentious wine… with some pretention, to live up to its Villages tittle.
Which one would I buy for Beaujolais Nouveau day?
Perhaps the Georges Duboeuf ‘standard’ Beaujolais Nouveau, that appears very well made and easy to understand and appreciate, just simpler and more simply quaffable!
Enjoy
Check out what the Nouveau wine looks like in real life:
An learn more about the region behind Beaujolais Nouveau
Please let me know your thoughts