Nicole Chanrion Domaine de la Voûte des Crozes Côte-de-Brouilly 2005 Tasting Notes

A tasty $16 wine this is. It has plenty of body for its type, more complexity than many Beaujolais offerings and yet a light drinkable attitude all the same. The varied fruit arrives with steady acidity and a respectable and appropriate level of tannin. It takes a second glass to register all these impulses, but this is a wine you drink.

The nose brings primarily red fruit—cherry, strawberry and raspberry—with a sense behind it of preserved or candied fruit: cherries in brandy, perhaps, or fig. I noted a floral touch of rose with a sprig or two of smoked wild thyme in the mix.

The palate repeats all these notes, but with a greater tang, more a presence of cranberry and dried apricot. There is spice: black pepper up front with nutmeg and clove further back. The dried smoked thyme reappears and pushes through into a mild licorice note. The fruit is never far from the front of the stage, however.

The finish of this wine shows a nice combination of the elements, with tannin playing more of a role than I have found in most Beaujolais. Though unquestionably a serious wine from a serious hill, the Chanrion Voûte des Crozes is at the same time a concentrated expression of Gamay, the delightful grape of Beaujolais.