Is it wrong that I use Beaujolais as a litmus when judging people’s wine-taste? I’m sorry, but nothing says: I LOVE REAL WINE more accurately than a non-stop fascination with Cru-Bojo. Sure, there are many other examples–at least one from every major wine-producing country–but I don’t care how much bling you pop for The Instagram Engagement Gods, NOTHING screams you have your feet rooted in the soil and your head firmly adjusted to the spirit and sanctity of *wine* than an appreciation of Gamay from the Mother-Country.
This one is a dense black ruby: dark and impenetrable with the red glow barely peeking through. Heady perfume greets the nose: a cherry so perfectly polished; a raspberry concentrated enough to count as blackberry; petrichor and DG riding high on glorious waves of leather and licorice. A New-World wine-lover’s dream, it carries an almost California-ripeness and density–but tasting it will dispel those notions, as the dusty green ire of citrus, briar and stone alludes.
Abrasive and shrill on attack, the rich fruit takes a half-step getting organized before kissing every pore with rich berry delight. Heart-shaped and cherubic, it nonetheless packs a package of zingy acid border-lining on spritzy. The pepper of briar; the green vibrant vegetal of tomato-vine and the sticky spray of spring-time weed-eating placate the thick umber of the fruit, reminding you the glories of low-Ph, hi-acid and manageable ABV are the foundation of fresh fruity expression and minerality–even in the face of carbonic dilution. The perfect-pitch of the finish combines one part tannin, two parts acidity, and three parts cherry splendor in a thick illusion circling back to the *California ripeness* part.
People constantly say I write too much, but wines like this are a perfect example of my helpless pleonasm. I opened this wine because I didn’t want to think about a wine too hard: to simply scribble something like, “Wow this is good!” like every other dipshit on the internet and jerk off everyone’s short-attention-span. But then the wine takes you away…
2017 DOMAINE DES MARRANS ‘Corcelette’ Gamay Morgon Burgundy France 13.0
Stephen McConnell 