2005 Roux Pere & Fils Beaujolais-Villages

Rajiv Ayyangar

This Gamay (the first I've tasted) has a powerful, pure, appetizing nose of candied cherries and strawberries, which is supported by a medium-bodied, slightly sweet, fruity palate, with good acidic freshness and good tannins at the finish. It's bold, easy to understand, and delicious. The fruitiness became almost too sweet after a while, but make no mistake, this is not a sugar-fied wine. For lots of flavor and tannins with low alcohol content (12.5%) this is a good choice. My only complaint is it's lack of complexity and slight fake-ness of the nose. ------------------SECOND TASTING--------
(Boston Thanksgiving Dinner 11/23/07 - tasted while cooking): NOSE: never developed the strong aromatics I remembered. Took on onion and pie characteristics at different times, depending on what it was close to. The nose seemed tired the entire time. Pretty disappointing. PALATE: none of the grippy tannins I recall, weak retronasal aromatics, mostly sourness and alcohol. I don't know what killed this wine, but it did not show well at all. Not corked or noticeably flawed.

Tasting Tags: delicious gamay simple