Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé

Man, I haven't posted a wine tasting on this blog in forever. I suck!

My apologies to any remaining readers or curious scragglers. I've just been pumping my time and attention into other things. Like video games and dreams about world leaders.

This year's Beaujolais Nouveau — my first — surprised me with its acidic tendencies. I guess I was expected a fruity, jammy juice of a wine that had no complexity to it. Instead, I got a smoky and fairly flavorful red with a juicier nose than taste.

There is something almost like cheap candy or licorice in the taste of this wine. It's hard to put my finger on it.

It's a quaffable wine, for sure, but not something I'm terribly crazy about.

Still, I'll probably seek it out year after year to see how each crop compares to the last.

My first Bordeaux

I've been reading up on Bordeaux, so when the first sip of Chateau Trocard Bordeaux Superieur 2003 hit my mouth, its flavors made perfect sense. There was that unmistakable flush of smoke and tannin that comes with a sip of Cabernet Sauvignon. But the full-bodied onslaught is tempered somewhat by a soft, round finish — to the point where I want to guess that there's some Merlot in there somewhere. I can't find the blend specifics online anywhere, and they're not listed on the bottle, so I'm sort of guessing.

I like this wine. For the price — $10! — it's sophisticated and complex. Its coloration is a gorgeous plummy purple, and the nose is divine and smells almost exactly like it tastes. I imagine that if I could actually afford $80 bottles of Bordeaux, I might have found my signature wine. But I'm actually holding out that designation for a fabulous Burgundy. And I think I might have to skip the pond to find it.