Beaujolais Crus are delightful summer wines. Their exuberant, raw fruit flavors and pronounced, minerally undertones deliver a vitality in the glass that offers a delicious compliment to more complex and equally fresh summer fare. However, Beaujolais Cru shouldn't be lumped in with Beaujolais or Beaujolais Villages - much less Nouveau styles - as a pairing for picnic fare and summer barbecues.
Read MoreThis trio of wines confirms that Nicholas Potel is clearly on his way to crushing it with this wine line, just as I suspected last year. As it says on the rosé wine label, the Bellenos wines are "Burgundy from the Heart and Sol", sol being earth. The wines all taste definitively Burgundian, but the very gentle prices don't look Burgundian at all.
Read MoreWhen I visited Burgundy in the summer and fall of 2017, cellars were full of Côteaux Bourguignon. I was surprised at how many vignerons had embraced this category – one that falls into the gluggable, cuddly, one-more-glass-why-not-? sort of category.
Read MoreThe world is awaiting the release of Beaujolais Nouveau, but there's cracking good Beaujolais of all sorts and deeper dimensions ready on your retail shelf now. Here are just a few examples, and each is well worth the few extra bucks. Santé!
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