2010 Beaujolais Villages Les Vignes de Thulon

The Burgaud 2010 Beaujolais-Villages les Vignes de Thulon offers a sappy, exuberant, and ultimately gripping profusion of ripe but tart-edged and prominently seedy blackberry. A mouthwatering salinity helps render this simple but pure and intensely-fruited recent bottling irresistible. Plan to enjoy it over the next couple of years. In Jean-Marc Burgaud’s absence, his father guided me through this estate’s 2010s, including a pre-assemblage of those cuvees that had not yet been bottled at the time of my visit, and an opportunity to further sample individual barrels. (For more about Burgaud’s sites, methods, and exceptional talents, consult my report in issue 190.) From among Burgaud’s 2009s, I have re-tasted stateside the Beaujolais-Villages, Regnie, and Morgon Cote de Py, all of which continue to enormously impress, the last-named easily justifying the upper end of my issue 190 projection. Unfortunately, press of time and circumstance has thus far precluded my revisiting Burgaud’s three limited special bottlings of 2009 Cote de Py. A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29; also imported by Ideal Wine and Spirits, Medford, MA; tel. (781) 395-3300 and Langdon Shiverick, Los Angeles, CA; tel. (213) 483-5900