Friday, August 1, 2008

Joseph Drouhin Bourgogne Véro 2005

[Cross-posted from 2 Days per Bottle.]

Wine Advocate (89) David Schildknecht said it had refreshing brightness & called it a victory for consumers.

The little wooden guy, on the other hand, is not pleased with this wine. Read on to find out why.



France
Burgundy
Bourgogne
$19.99
12.5% alcohol

The color is very light clear red. The nose opens tart and fruity, sour cherry and strawberries. The fruit sweetens after the initial tartness, smelling candied with brown sugar or maple. There is also just enough of a whiff of earth to tell you it is likely French.

The palate opens all sour fruit, sour cherries and sour strawberries. That sweetens a little on the finish, adding a sense of red licorice. Tannins were slightly drying but smooth.

Will this close down on night two, or will it soften and open up, revealing something other than red fruit? Let us find out together.

NIGHT TWO

Sour cherries and strawberries still lead the nose, but there is also some caramel and some sage. It actually seems, on the nose, to have closed a bit from night one. The palate is still sour cherries, but deeper, a bit richer, with blackberries throw in instead of the sweeter strawberries of the night before. A little Dr. Pepper followed, then a hint of spice. Overwhelmingly, though the sour cherries and blackberries dominated from start to finish, without significant transition to midpalate or finish.

This is a disappointingly one-dimensional wine. Yes, I know, at $19.99 it is practically free by the standards of 2005 Burgundy, but why bother? There are far more interesting wines from other regions for the same amount of scratch.

This strikes me as a pure QPR 89, a rating based upon its price in relation to the astronomical '05 Burgundy market. I would be willing to bet David Schildknecht would not be able to pick this out of a random case of pinot plonk one time out of ten in a blind tasting.

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