The French Got it Right This Time Dec 19 '05    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Wine Yago Sant'gria 750ml From $6 Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2006 750ml From $10 The Bottom Line This is a great- tasting French burgundy that would make the perfect addition to an Italian meal. Holidays are a time to celebrate and good food and drink are naturally part of any festive occasion. Most of the time, I prefer to partake in some tasty Christmas ale during the holiday seasons but this year I find myself broadening my horizons by tasting wine. The latest one to come across my lips is 2000 Hospices De Beaujeu Brouilly, a red burgundy wine from France and a wine I obtained from my mom who is a member of a wine of the month club. Basic Characteristics of This Wine: This wine is purple/red in color with a body that is heavy but still allows some light to shine through. The nose on this wine is grape- like and a little bit alcoholic. Like I expected, the main flavor present in this wine was that of grapes and they hit you from the very start and last all the way to the finish. Besides the grapes, there are also some other flavors worth noting like a touch of blackberry, vanilla, and some oak notes. The finish of this wine is alcoholic at first, but the dryness quickly switches back to the taste of sweet grapes in the aftertaste. Made from grapes grown in the Burgundy region of France, this wine is full- bodied and flavorful, with an alcoholic content of 13.5 percent by volume. A single 750 ml bottle sells for about $16. Food Compatibility: This is an easy one. When I tasted this wine, the food dishes that popped into my mind immediately were Italian. This wine would match up nicely with lasagna, manicotti, even spaghetti and meatballs. With non- Italian dishes, this wine seems like it would be right at home with a fancy salad or with certain fruity desserts. Final Thoughts: Hospices De Beaujeu Broilly is a good- tasting burgundy wine from the nation of France. This wine has a label that depicts noblemen on horseback and it contains as much French as it does English. Besides the main title, the back label also contains the name “Collin- Bourisset Beaujolais Maconnais”, which indicates this wine is made in the Beaujolais district of Burgundy. Lionstone International- a firm located in Illinois- imports this wine for sale and consumption in the United States. Among wines I have tried, the burgundy style is often among my least favorites. The reason for my disliking is that most of the burgundy wine I have sampled has tasted more like vinegar than anything else, with little good taste and drinkability that is often so poor that consuming was a chore. I would often cringe when people would ask me to sample a glass of wine like this because I knew it could be painful to finish. This wine, however, is very different. The nose might seem like the aroma you get from a vinegary wine, but the taste is anything but that. Most of what you taste here is grapey and sweet and while full- bodied, it goes down easily thanks to the fruity sweetness that erases any attempt to taste like a glass of Heinz vinegar. Even the finish is pleasant. It gets a little bit alcoholic at the end, but this taste is quickly replaced by that of sweet grapes. I started my sample after chilling for a short time, just to take off some of the edge (remember- my experience with burgundy wine hasn’t been positive) and to taste test the differences between drinking at a temperature of 55 degrees vs. a room temperature of 65 to 70 degrees- the temperature you normally serve a wine like this one. With this wine, I found the differences only slight. As it warmed, some of the grape flavors became more intense. But the wine was still tasty even when slightly chilled. 2000 is a non- vintage year for this wine. I looked up some information on it and found that the latest vintage is 2003. For a non- vintage year, this one is still very good- tasting and it is one of the better wines I have tried (burgundy and otherwise). It isn’t terribly overpriced either, with a 750 ml bottle retailing for only about $16. Wine isn’t normally my drink of choice during the winter season or any season, but this wine is very tasty and one that I recommend. I’m going to rate this wine 4 stars out of 5. It offers some good wine drinking enjoyment from one of the world’s premier wine- making regions.

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