NY Time Wine School Tasting - a very different French story and grape

The South Alabama Wine Club met again for our second month of the NY Times Wine School tasting. This month - the beautiful Beaujolais wine. As you might recall, last month's tasting was Bordeaux, which is most often very "old world" grape, earthy and strong.

We switched gears this month with Beaujolais wine, made mainly from the Gamay grape, which has thin skins and, therefore, low in tannin. It tends to be a very light red wine and fruit forward.

One cool thing about the region is that they ferment through Carbonic Maceration. In normal fermentation, the grapes are crushed and yeast is added to the must (grape skins and juices). However, with carbonic maceration, they allow the natural yeasts to begin fermentation within the grape and, therefore, not crushing it. But, as gravity can tend to do, some of the grapes at the bottom are inevitably crushed, thus creating a nice combo effect.

With that all said, carbonic maceration is supposed to create a stronger fruit taste due to its minimalist approach within the grape.

The outcome?

Wine Momma and South Alabama Wine Club Wine Review
Wine: 2011 Beaujolias
Smell: Fresh baby, strawberry, vinyl/leather, mildew (this can sometimes be associated with earthy and old world grapes)
Taste: spice, coffee, strawberry
Thoughts: medium acidity, very smooth, fruit is more pronounced when eating cheese
Wine Momma Wine Review - a solid 3 for both the price and the fact that it was a smooth, easy to drink table wine with a very cool fermentation story

You can pick up your own for any price between $17 - $75. 

Cheers!