The Masculine Side of Beaujolais - a Focus on More Robust Crus

On the heels of participating in the first Beaujolais Taste Live event: Discover Beaujolais - The Feminine Side of Beaujolais; we were invited to participate in the second round: The Masculine Side of Beaujolais - a Focus on More Robust Crus. Once again the event wass sponsored by Inter Beaujolais, the official wine-trade organization of the region. And once again, we received four wines - this time representing high quality cru wines from different vintages that are available in the United States. These were:

• Christophe Pacalet, Cote de Brouilly, 2006;
• Pascal Granger, Juliénas, 2005
• Loluis-Claude Desvignes, Morgon, 2007
• Domaine Diochon, Moulin à Vent, 2008

And like the first event, I care least for the first wine - although not nearly as bad as before. The Christophe Pacalet, Cote de Brouilly, 2006 retails for $17 and is basically an easy sipping fruity wine. Yea, there's plenty of fruit, but that was it. No acidity, no tannins, no structure, no finesse, just fruit. rose substantially moving to the Pascal Granger, Juliénas, 2005, the most expensive wine of the night at $24. This wine exhibited true Old World characteristics with some mineral content from the nose to the tail. Plus some cherry flavor and texture on the palette. This was an excellent wine. The Loluis-Claude Desvignes, Morgon, 2007 ($20) followed with more fruit but balanced with subtle amounts of acidity, earthiness, and some spiciness - all the character lacking in the Christophe Pacalet, Cote de Brouilly. The tasting sheet was right on with the white pepper notes. Another excellent wine. Yet, the masterpeice of the evening was the final wine, the Domaine Diochon, Moulin à Vent, 2008 ($21). This wine seemed to include the best characteristics of the previous two - dark fruit flavors and earthy minerals. This wine exudes strong aromatics, contains structure, acidity, tannins - all the usual wine buzz words. This is one wine we will keep in our cellar.