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Something red and lighter for the summer?

Well look no further than the Beaujolais. A landscape that is beautiful, a wonderful gastronomic region with wines that when at their best are simply stunning, and a great variety of good food to help the wine down. Or should that be the other way around?! Then he has made an unsulphured cuvee of Chiroubles, thus it has great purity. It has however not seen oxygen on its journey and thus it takes a few minutes to really open up, but when it does, by jove, what a great wine. It's packed with bright, cherry and bramble fruit with such freshness it really leaps from the glass. Finally from Didier, a wine coming from vineyards close to the Mont de Brouilly where the soil gives a finesse to the wines. This is a very fruity, and easy drinking wine with bags of blackcurrant and raspberry fruit. It is an ideal wine for simply quaffing with some charcuterie or at its finest with a duck breast or a simple coq au vin.

We have three sources for Beaujolais and all are top end. Firstly, Didier Desvignes has made a very enjoyable and easy drinking Beaujolais Villages from vineyards just outside the village of Morgon. Soft, fruity and incredibly easy to quaff. 

Next is the Vincent family of Pouilly Fuisse fame. They offer Morgon Les Charmes, perhaps the most famous of the Morgon vineyards.  Hallmark aromas and flavours of cherry and kirsch are so very expressive here. It has a dark ruby colour with notes of raspberry and strawberry next to the cherries already mentioned. Concentrated on the palate it is packed with fruit flavour backed by fine tannins and good freshness. Then we have the Julienas, which has the tell-tale hallmark of the appellation with the notes of peony in the bouquet together with raspberries, redcurrants and strawberries. It fills the mouth with flavour and has very fine fruit on the palate with good intensity and it finishes with a long aftertaste with a fine tannic structure.

Last but not least we have three versions of Fleurie from Alain Coudert Domaine. Clos De La Roilette has a deep ruby colour with a hint of purple, thanks to the use of the traditional semi-carbonic maceration method of winemaking. A restrained nose of plums, mulberries and dark cherry fruit, with meaty elements, smoke, olives, pepper, liquorice and menthol in the mix. Then there is the Cuvee Tardive, a wine made from the oldest vines on the estate and the tardive relates to the age rather than the picking. The vines are currently around 90 years of age and in each successive vintage they offer greater and greater complexity to the resulting wine. As the parcel borders onto the Moulin a Vent appellation, the manganese and clay soils give a full on expression of the Gamay grape and make this wine worthy of inclusion in every cellar. If you're a Burgundy lover but find the prices of the top wines too much these days, take a few bottles of this and cellar them for a few years, you'll barely tell the difference apart from the cash left in your pocket! Finally comes the Griffe du Marquis which is unusual for its appellation as it is matured for around 12 months in oak Burgundy barrels of two to six years of age. Deep aromas of meaty blackberry and strawberry confiture, violets and mint. The intense palate of berry liqueur, plum, stone and earth have fabulous length and a firm, acidity. Earthy, dark fruit coats the palate on the ripe but balanced finish. Fleurie may have been regarded as a light, early drinking wine, but this bruiser has at least 10 years of life left in it.