Potel-Aviron 2004 Chenas Vieilles Vignes

Over the years I've enjoyed many bottles of wine from Georges Duboeuf, so it's with mixed feelings that I read that the makers of tonight's bottle, Nicolas Potel and Stephane Aviron, represent a sort of anti-Duboeuf.

Duboeuf will always be associated, fairly or not (*), with the great marketing success he made with Beaujolais Nouveau and the process of carbonic maceration fermentation. Burgundy vigneron and eleveur Potel uses, in Beaujolais, extended skin contact, traditional (yeast-mediated) fermentation, and a percentage of new oak barrels, techniques often thought of as 'new style' Beaujolais. Demonstrating that the old style still dominates the market is that the word 'Beaujolais' appears nowhere on the label of this wine.

I aerated this vigorously and let it rest briefly after opening.

Smell of blackberry and cherry, notes of talcum.

Blackberry and cherry flavors, gentle but firm tannins, well-integrated oak. Medium-to-full-bodied, matches well with steak and vegetables and with biscuit and cheddar.

A surprising Beaujolais wine, an excellent bottle for $16.99. I've not lost my appreciation for the Duboeuf style, but my eyes have been opened to another way.