Welcome to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We're here with another episode for you, and today, we're looking at the broad region of Beaujolais. Beaujolais! Are you sure it's not Beaujolais? Beaujolais. Ooh, Beaujolais. I hate it when you say Beaujolais. I'm Chris, I do wine at Binny's, and in the room with me is... I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Jim's just giving everyone an evil stare because of all the editing he's going to have to do with this first part. Yeah, it's part for the course. All right, Chris, take it from the top. Do a clean one. I mean, we got it. I think we're at I'm Alicia. Alicia just set up her director's chair. I stand from the top. Yeah, a little arm chair producing there. I was trying to make it easy for Chris. Let's record that one this time. I'm Roger, and I do beer and Beaujolais Nové. Beaujolais Nové. That's how I say it, right? I'm Alicia, I do wine. I'm Jenna, I do communications. And formerly wine. And formerly wine, and I'm going to be talking a lot today, and we're offering a preview of the 2020 Vintage. Little overview, if you're not familiar, Beaujolais is located in the south of Burgundy. Technically speaking, it is part of Burgundy, although we don't really talk about that. It is made up of three categories. We're going to be talking about two today. The first one is just regular Beaujolais. You don't see those in stores often. Most of the time those grapes are used to make Beaujolais Nouveau, which comes out the third Thursday of every November. We're also not talking about that today. We're going to be focusing on- Do they still hand out neckties for that? I got one. I just got one. The Beaujolais Nouveau necktie somewhere. The Georges Duboeuf one, the pink with the flowers. It's buried somewhere, but I found that of interesting giveaway. Do you have any neckwear for me to celebrate this release, please? Well, what's funny about that is that it was released and was like the peasant's wine, if you will, celebrating the harvest and a glimpse at that vintage, and then they're handing out pink neckties. I don't really think those people were too concerned about what was- That's why they don't hand out ascots and monocles. I was going to say, yeah, what are the cravats? I want my Beaujolais Hermes scarf. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, there you go. Is Beaujolais Nouveau Vuitton shoes? Well, so real quick, Jenna, why did you pick Beaujolais? Because my boss told me I had to. Guilty. Because it's summertime and spring didn't exist, and now it's hot as hell, and this is one of the more refreshing red styles that you can drink chilled if you want to. It is a very light refreshing wine. It is often referred to as the only red wine that's white, so I guess it is topical for this time of year. That is correct. A bunch of Beaujolais skeptics in the room right now, so this should be very interesting to hear all these opinions later on as we get tasting. I brought up Nouveau just to say the layman, I feel, might only think of this category because of that little the fresh window where everyone thinks like, okay, it's in, grab it, drink it immediately. Yeah, and it is something like nearly, or it is 50% of the wine produced in Beaujolais goes to making Nouveau or just basic Beaujolais. Yeah. Isn't that wild? Wow. I thought it was closer to 20. I read about a quarter now. Yeah. But I mean, if you read this recently, it could be 50. That'd be a lot. I mean, it might be a combination of Nouveau and regular Beaujolais, which is what that 50% was referring to that I read possibly. Beaujolais AOC Wine. Yes. Probably 50% of production. Yeah. Yeah. Then a quarter of, and then half of that being Nouveau. Yeah. The general impression of Beaujolais is that it's simple, easy drinking stuff and hopefully we have an opportunity to find some complexity in the region too. This is going to turn your head around. We have some really top producers today, so it's pretty exciting. We do have some good stuff. Normally, I always associate Beaujolais with a melted grape popsicle, very fruity, just very meh. But I did taste these to make sure none of them were corked and fan of almost all of them. I think we're in for a good time today. With that being said, let's pour the first wine, which is Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages. Unlike Brophy, I'm prepared with the prices. This baby is only $12.99 on our shelves. Now, you're talking. That is my price point wheelhouse for Vino. Honestly, one post-it with the answers written on it is all you need to look prepared on this podcast. Or you can just use the Binny's app. Or the Binny's app. Or the Binny's app, yeah. You can scan the barcode right on the back of the bottle and bring up the price. Okay, so we have, what, 2020 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages. With the flowers on the label. The King of Beaujolais. Yes, the King of Beaujolais. Georges Duboeuf, yeah, one of the more famous names out of the region. And also, again, I know we're not going to be diving into it via a wine or too much in combo, but he really was the one that really helped put Beaujolais Nouveau on the map in the second half of the 20th century. So he certainly gets credit for that and generating, I think, some enthusiasm for the region and its wines, for sure. So what makes a Vélage stand apart from a Beaujolais Just? Okay, so Vélage is kind of a step up. It's about 25% of all Beaujolais. It's made up of 39 different villages. This is located in the hilly midsection of the entire Beaujolais region. The soils are a little poorer, which make the vines struggle, which actually produces better grapes. It means like rocky or nutrient low? Yes, nutrient poor. They're granite and sand, so it forces a better yield and riper grapes. The quality in Vélage is going to be a step up from usually Nouveau and just regular Beaujolais. However, the 39 villages are not extremely common, so you normally are not going to see those on the label. You will just see Beaujolais Village on your label most of the time. There are exceptions. Yeah, most are sourcing from a number of villages, but if you do have exclusive fruit from one, you can append the name with that. As Jenna said, this is your step up from regular Beaujolais. It's only just a few dollars more, and you do get a little more concentration, a little more structure than you would with that basic level of Beaujolais. Jumping into this wine, it's candied red fruit, it's super guaffable, you don't need to think too much about it. This is that playful light expression that I think a lot of people associate with Beaujolais, and you might have and be like, you have already maybe forgotten about it by the end of the glass, but it's a refreshing bright red wine. Yes. For $12.99, this is a good party wine, this is something you can bring for dinner or something, and you're not breaking the bank and everyone will enjoy it, but like Alisha said, you'll probably forget about it, but that's fine. You won't remember it for being bad. What I'm not going to forget about was you mentioning grape popsicles because now you planted the seed. I'm thinking of now the quality ones like the Welch's ones. What? Not just like a blank purple chemical, but like a real grape juice popsicle. Yes. Only the best expression of Concord. Yes. Yes. You guys are damning with faint praise right now. I think this wine is really interesting on the nose. It has a lot of- Do you? Well, I think it has a lot of plush fruit. Maybe interesting is the wrong word. I think it has a lot of plush fruit and a little bit of an LR spice, and then it's fine. Actually, on the back of the palate, it seems like it's like hard acid or a tar quality or asphalt kind of a thing. Maybe it's tannin or acid or something, but I think this would be wonderful with a little bit of a chill. I think it'd be pretty good with some fruit in there and some orange brandy. How's that for damning with faint praise? I want it with a peanut butter sandwich. Can we get a fluffer butter? I would agree with you, Greg. One of the most notable aspects of the structure of this wine is the acidity without a doubt and therefore, it's absolutely begging for a chill and to be served at a picnic or a cookout or something. It's a relatively simple wine, but it's nice and lest people think that Duboeuf is not a serious producer because of the Nouveau Association or this entry-level wine. They also work with the crew villages and make some very nice wines. So it's a serious operation. Yes. Let it be known, this is just their entry-level Beaujolais. So yeah, there's some serious stuff going on. I'm definitely a reputable producer. This particular one, just very simple and easy, but there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just need a simple, easy $12.99 bottle of wine. That's what this delivers. Jenny, you want to tell us about how many producers making Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages especially achieve these kind of high acid, low tannin, but still able to extract color, and that kind of kirsch bubblegum banana thing that we have going on? Because it's not unique to the region, but they certainly carry the flag for this wine making technique. Yeah, I was actually going to bring that up next because I was going to ask if anyone noticed the banana characteristics. Going back, seeing if it's there. Diving back into the glass. That's why I said I wanted this with a fluffernutter. Beaujolais, a common producing technique is called carbonic maceration, and we've talked about it before on this podcast, but if you're not familiar with what that is, essentially, what you're doing is putting whole clusters of grapes into a giant tank, sealing that tank, letting the grapes on top are essentially crushing the grapes below them, therefore, they are exposing the juices. These juices are getting exposed to the natural yeast and so forth, and these start fermenting, creating carbon dioxide. That carbon dioxide rises up. The pressure from that gas eventually makes the grapes on top explode, exposing them to yeast in the tank, and then they start fermenting. Sounds like a scene from... What's that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie on Mars? They remade it with What's His Face, The Penguin. Oh, thank you. I couldn't remember. Total Recall. Not a joke. Sounds like that. You know, when he gets pushed out of the... You need a cyber vacation, clearly. Yeah, right. Okay. Anyway, the concept of grapes being crushed because of the air pressure is... Yeah. Can Greg think of that scene where Arnold's eyeballs pop out of his head? Yes, that. Imagine all the grapes with their tiny little screams. Yeah. So, this technique is used mostly in very fruity wines with very fruit-forward grapes. So, that's why it's so successful with the Gamay grape, which, that being said, all of these wines are 100% Gamay that we're trying today. So, you just described an anaerobic environment. Does yeast need oxygen? Like, does it choke out the yeast? So, I mean, there are two kind of ways you can approach carbonic maceration or semi-carbonic maceration. And one, if you, kind of as Jenna described, but if you flush that vat and it's closed with CO2, you're only going to get intracellular fermentation going on because it is an oxygen-free environment. You've pushed it out with your CO2. So, the fermentation is happening like inside the... Inside the individual grape berry. Right. That's an enzymatic fermentation rather than one performed by yeast. Correct. Correct. And once within the berry, you get about 2% ABV, that's what's causing that skin to burst. Whoa. So, wow, that's nuts. I always knew the words carbonic maceration, but I never had this vivid painting drawn where the grapes are becoming alcoholic on their own and then exploding. Yes. A metaphor for life. And as Jenna said, once that they do explode and the juice then comes down and settles at the bottom of that bat, the natural yeast will pick up the fermentation of that time. Many times they'll go ahead and just drain all that free run and continue fermenting. But yeah, in semi-carbonic, you will not flush it with CO2. You will, as Jenna said, let the weight of the berries at the top crush those at the bottom. You get natural fermentation at the bottom. The CO2 rises, causes the inter-cellular just at the top. Those then burst because it ends up having a commercial. That's like a more complex, different kinds of fermentation happening at the same time. Just a slightly different variation. Semi-carbonic being definitely the most popular with Beaujolais rather than carbonic. With one exception, I believe all of these wines use semi-carbonic as opposed to carbonic or traditional fermentation. Although there is one that is using traditional Burgundian fermentation and no semi-carbonic. I would also point out that whole cluster fermentation this way, that can cause just a kind of a passive semi-carbonic maceration, is also popular with Pinot noir and in Burgundy. They wouldn't call it semi-carbonic. They would call it just whole cluster, but it results in some fruitier notes. This carbonic process is what causes all of that banana, pear, bubblegum-like character. It produces a lot of esters, in particular, amyl acetate, which is sometimes referred to as banana oil or pear oil, and it smells dead on like that fruity banana and pear flavor and aroma. Yeah. So real quick too, just next time you go and buy your Pinot noir from the Willamette or Sonoma or wherever you're buying Pinot noir from, a lot of times you'll notice in the tech sheet or someone will describe to you that they're using a portion of whole cluster fermentation, and so you can draw that back to what we just described with a little bit of that semi-carbonic nature. So yeah, it adds a really nice fruity aromatic lift to the wine. Greg, you also had a question. Did you still want to ask that? Greg, what's that on your shirt? Don't say semi-carbonic again. Why? Because it's like the Pee Wee Herman word of the day at this point. Oh, has it been said a lot now? Yes. Okay. Now, with its whole cluster, does that mean that the stems and the leaves and, you know? Well, no leaves. All that s*** is impacting. Just stems? Just stems. No leaves, you dope. Do we have another Beaujolais Village? We do. All right, here's another French word. Let's see. Jean-Marc Bouguier. That's a name. Yeah. All right, moving on. Wine number two, another village by, I'm gonna mess up this pronunciation, Jean-Marc Bouguier. Yep. Which was worse? Jean. They're both abysmal. Yeah. No, they're so bad. Jean, not Jean. And then what's the last name? Jean-Marc Bouguier. Bouguier. Bouguier. Bouguier. Yeah. Bouguier. Bouguier. Bouguier. We were setting up a new store once, and I was doing receiving and I was yelling out the cases as they came in, and Doug Jeffers said, we're gonna make a drinking game out of how many wines I mispronounced because I'm terrible at pronunciation. This looks like the first screen of a foreign indie film. Yeah. It's the lamest label ever. Yeah. With Pam Flute playing under the title card. All black and white. It does look like just a mock-up. This is what the text will look like. This is the font we're going to use, and then they just forgot to put everything else. They forgot to put in the background art. They forgot to put in the background art. I'm writing on the label and the words on the label. The one thing I would point out is that contrary to what we said about Beaujolais Villages, this actually has a commune name on it. Yes, it does, which I'll also mispronounce. It comes from a particular area. Wait, it's a Beaujolais Villages that comes from a... One village. That comes from one village. So it's a single village, but not like a... It's not a crew, no. L'Antinier. L'Antinier. L'Antinier. That's how I was going to say it too. So, and this particular village is known for its hillsides and granite soil. So, this one only sees maceration for about four to five days though, versus the Georges Duboeuf which goes for six to eight days. So, a little bit less. Right on. I get tannin in this, or I didn't have much in the last one. Yeah. I'm actually surprised on the maceration differences. Very common for Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages to be on that four to five mark, and the more serious expressions tend to creep up to six to nine, cruise beyond that. But this one does have a little more structure to me than the previous wine. More mid palate too. Yep. It's not as kind of thin as the last one. There's still a little more there and more concentration. I actually tend to prefer this one. How much is this? I do too. This one is $16.99, so a little bit jump up in price. This is good. It's very good. I don't get the candied fruit like we did in the Duboeuf. I still get the banana, but this one is darker fruit, the cherry, raspberry versus like candied strawberry in the last one. Yeah, much more bramble. There's even an earthy component on the back end. In a racy acidity that scrapes the sides of your palate, like this gland back here. Nothing makes wine sound attractive like the word gland. Scraping glands over here. I would actually pair this with a nice thymus gland. There's some minerality on the finish that's pretty bright, refreshing. I could eat this like a picnic with like little cheese plate, little charcuterie. Greg, I agree with your assessment on the acidity, and I'm going to say that these are the first two 2020s I've tasted out of Beaujolais. Definitely a little early to call a vintage style, but they both have some very elevated acidity, really brisk, bright, fresh. Yeah, it seems to be a pretty common theme on the two that we've had so far, very bright acidity. Yeah. Real quick, Dana, Roger brought up some minerality in the wine, which got me thinking about the soil type, predominantly granite in the north part of Beaujolais before it all flattens out and you get all the clay in the south, and that's where the Beaujolais produced. But in the crews that we're transitioning into, tell us how Gamay got to Beaujolais and they made it their own because of some famous guy. Yeah. I actually have a quote from said famous guy. Gamay goes back all the way back to the 14th century. It was grown in Burgundy, and then Duke Philippe the Bold in 1395. The Bold. The Bold had a very bold. Was it self-proclaimed? After him, we stopped letting people pick their own nickname. Duke Philippe T-Bone. Duke Philippe the Bold had bold opinions on Gamay and apparently some beef with it. In 1395, issued an edict banning the grape from the Cote d'Or to the southern Burgundian region called Beaujolais. This edict in partial read, and I quote, a very bad and disloyal variety called Gamay's, which is the old name for Beaujolais, from which come abundant quantities of wine. This wine of Gamay's is of such a kind that it is very harmful to human creatures, so much so that many people who had it in the past were infested by serious diseases. We have heard because said wine from said plant of said nature is full of significant and horrible bitterness for this reason, we solemnly command you, all of you who have said vines of said Gamay's to cut them down or have them cut down wherever He's basically a politician today. Seriously. He's like talking down and using legalese at the same time. In the such that. There has to be a backstory that like he knew some landowner that had tons of that. He was like, guess what, buddy? Some landowner slept with his wife and he wanted to punish him. I've got a bold response to this problem. It was quite widely planted in Burgundy proper at the time, and vignerons were not particularly happy with this edict. But to blame disease, seriously. Well, no, but the best part is that the root of the disease ended with bitterness. Anyway, so no credit to him because it wasn't intentional. It was all good because Gamay does so much better on the granite soils of Beaujolais than it does on the limestone escarpment in Burgundy. So in the end, it kind of worked out even though his motives were unclear. Okay, dumb question. And for what geopolitical reason is Beaujolais still in Burgundy? I mean, is it like just that's the state or why is it considered part of a sub-region? Chris, correct me if I'm wrong. It's actually still in the Rhone Department, correct? Yeah, it's mostly in the Rhone Department, but it's also in sonnet-loire. It's split between two departments. That raises even more questions. Well, leave it up to the French wine law guys to make things even more befuddling to everyone else. Well, one explanation may be that Lyon is like the gastronomic center of France, and Burgundy would be wise to want to cling to that, and Beaujolais is really surrounds Lyon. That's just a theory. Definitely, and also just not necessarily its proximity, but it really got its start as a region when railroads and canal travels and river travels all were possible, and it allowed the wines of Beaujolais to, yes, definitely go down river to Lyon, but also to Paris, and that's when so many of the French started to get to know the wines of Beaujolais. This was definitely in solidly Gamay Times, and it also led to so much demand that quality did suffer in that way, and they had to take a step back. But getting their wines to both Lyon and Paris were instrumental to the growth of the region. That was one of the explanations given to me, I think by Herman, in terms of wine laws, because I don't understand it, and I'm like, people should just make grapes, whatever they want, who cares? She's like, well, a lot of these laws just really reinforce the grapes that do well. It's not an accident that they picked that grape to grow in this region as an identity, it's because it makes sense there. No. Most of the time, things were growing for centuries and then codified. Still, I wonder what spiteful bull**** happened to make them outlaw Gamay all the way through Burgundy. Well, it's not all the way through Burgundy necessarily. You don't see it in the Cote d'Or, but in the Mekong north of Beaujolais, there's some Gamay grown and you can make something called Pastu Grande, which is a blend of Pinot noir and Gamay. I bet that's fine. Which is an interesting little tidbit. Yeah. What did they replant it with? All just all Pinot? All Pinot noir and Chardonnay. Yeah, as Jenna said, this was specifically up in the Cote d'Or, so in that most southern part of Burgundy, the Coach Alenaz and the Mekong. We can still see a little bit. He knew a guy with a bunch of Pinot rhizomes apparently. Yeah, that's it. The Pope's buddy was a fisherman, right? Our next wine is, gonna mispronounce it, Jeannot des Moulins Avent. Moulins Avent. Oh, sorry. Moulins Avent. Moulins Avent. What she said. Wasn't that the song? Dun dun dun dun dun. Dun dun dun dun. Moulins Avent. So Moulins Avent is the crew where this one is coming from actually. And then this particular producer. Only 250 cases of this are made a year according to their tech sheet anyway. Fancy. And we have this kind of in most vintages. Yeah. It's on our shelves. At least at Binny's, it's not uncommon. We probably buy it all. Yeah, all 250 cases. The Everdivine is about 60 years old as well. Let's go with that because the alternative is that not many people want it. Yes, we get it all so that other people can. This one stands at $17.99. This Mulan Avant, are you sure? Binny's app to the rescue. Yeah, look it up just in case. I'm going to look it up. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. Oh, s***. How much is it? $17.99? Sure is. It actually is $17.99. I would buy this. This smells great for $17.99. I love this wine. I think it's an awesome wine. It's also vegan, certified vegan. Oh, that's nice. Don't play into that s***. Still was a fun fact. Oh, I'm sorry. They don't use fish bladders and egg whites? It's fine. What's wrong with that? Yes, but I just think it makes this grand statement that every wine is- Made with fish bladders and egg whites. firstly, egg whites can be used. I think clay bentonite is probably the most common. Is this her touch point? I never knew this. Well, like you do to vegan what I do to biodynamic. You just immediately bristle up and get all, yeah, well, it's not what you think it is. Well, remember when we realized when we were talking about vegan certification that bone char is apparently another thing now. For like carbon filters, I think is from bones. Oh, yeah. Either way though. Mulanavent. All right. Anyway, Mulanavent. Mulanavent. Mulanavent. This wine is vegan. It is vegan. It is delicious. I didn't know you can hold your nose in just your voice. Well, whatever it smells good no matter what it is. Oh, yeah. There's so much more structure and just this is a wine versus the last one. It felt like slated water. That one wasn't that bad. I mean, it wasn't good. This is party time in a bottle. This is a whole fruit salad right here. A veritable Mulan Rouge. There's also an element, I was telling Jenna before, we tasted these already. There's a little bit of rusticity in this wine that I get year after year. With this producer, and I think it adds definitely a layer of complexity that is, it's not just fruit where we- What do you mean when you say that? Like wild yeast? No, just like a little bit of like this kind of funk earth, that type of thing going on. Copper, high toned minerality. It also is much darker, I guess not much, but it has darker fruit than the ones, any of the previous ones we've tried so far. Like blackberry and black cherry, versus just regular, like strawberry and regular cherry and stuff like that. And citrus. You know orange peel? Yeah. For sure? Yeah. Yep. It's definitely much more fruit forward, and the tannins are more subdued, so that's more my speed. What's a moulin? Is that a windmill? Right? Okay. We... Thanks. There's a lot of citrus in this wine, citrus peel. I mean, this sounds weird, but I even get like lemon or Meyer lemon citrus peel, but also something in the orange family. It has beautiful fruit. The soils here are, of course, granitic, they're red granite, and they have the highest levels of manganese in Beaujolais. The expression of minerality, I wouldn't say is naturally connected to it, but I completely agree there are rocky, minerally notes in this wine, and it does add a layer of complexity. I think it's beautiful, and it is a steal at $17.90. I literally am going to buy this when you're at home, and I know if you hear people say that on podcasts, you're full of ****. You're just trying to get me to buy it, but truly. This is $17.99 for Crew Beaujolais and Moulin-Avante being one of the most age-worthy crews. I mean, up with Morgon, Chénasse and Julienasse, Moulin-Avante are like your four that can actually kind of hold for quite a while. So. 4.5 windmills out of five. Yeah. I mean, just think about the fact that this is, as far as I know, a family-owned estate, a small estate with, I don't know, under 20 acres of vineyards and from the crew that is among the most age-worthy, and it is inexpensive and it's small production. It's remarkable. Yeah. And 17.2 acres, actually, to be exact. So yeah, very small operation. It's like craft wine. That's under 20, I think. Yeah. Check my math. It is. Apparently, paying a dollar an acre here at 17.99. Yeah, pretty much. They're like, we got to start making more wine, guys. This one also has my favorite finish out of all of them. Yeah, this is really- You want to keep coming back to this. It's really good. Yeah, this one's really nice. Everybody buy this wine. It should sell out by the time you listen to this podcast. It's possible. One, I have kind of a weird layman observation here. Is this stylistic to the region that all the labels are white? It's more French than, I think more of a French commonality than Beaujolais specifically. Also how has makersmarkt.com at the crew of Morgon, because multiple producers put this stupid drippy wax, red wax- Well, theirs isn't drippy, maybe that's why. Yeah, it's just the end of the bottle. So, this next one is actually from Morgon, which is probably one of the most well-known crew in Beaujolais. Holy s***, this one smells amazing. It smells really good. Roger, this smells like your Creek. Oh, yeah? Yeah, like the funky cherry. Roger owns a Creek? Tell them what I meant. Creek. Fumice for cherry. Yeah, like cherry, wild cherry, sour, wild beer. Yeah, I think that wild, there's a lot of like desiccated florals, there's a lot of like wet river stone, all that kind of stuff going on here. I was transfixed by the whole labels in French, so represent. Yeah, right. Screw you Americans. I appreciate that. Learn French. We better say what it is. I do the thing where I get excited about it and then just totally jump the shark on the whole thing. What's the producer here? This is by Julien Sunier. Nailed it. Nice. Interesting backstory actually. He was the son of a hairdresser, and he got into wine after graduating from school. He was corresponding with Christophe Roumié, who is a very famous burgundy producer, and was also a client of Julien's mother. That's how they networked and got together. Christophe took Julien under his wing, and that's how we got into the wine world. What a small world. That's crazy. Don't undersell that Roumié. It's one of the top estates, Domaine Georges Roumié, in all of burgundy. Works with Grand Cruz and Chambourton. We just got some more Roumié in, didn't we? I don't know. I hope so. When we cut it to the shelf, we had to make more Roumié. Do you remember those? Shame on you, Jim. I got a Jim thumbs up. Oh God. When I was a kid, this was one of my favorites. It's a spherical red cherry candy with liquid at the center. They came individually wrapped. That is taking me right back to this. This is taking me right back to that. Cherry or strawberry? Not the strawberry ones. I don't know what you're talking about. This was a sphere instead of a little butterscotch looking guy. Like that. We used to get them at Mr. Bulky, the candy shop where you could buy it by the pound. Mr. Bulky. Yes, I know. RIP. It's what everyone eats after their runza. Yes, right. Make more regional food references. You totally nailed it with comparing this to a cherry lambique, so much so that I was like, the finish is so flat and I'm expecting carbonation. Yeah, the cherry is crazy how much cherry there is, and there's some funk in there. I mean, this has to be some wild yeast, right? Well, it's biodynamic, correct, John? Yeah, it's said bioligique. And this one does go through the- In France, in French, please, vine biologique. Oui, Roger. In Les Boutilles? Biot. Yeah, so they're going to be using native yeast for sure. Beaujolais is kind of an epicenter for the quote unquote natural wine making movement. So a lot of people are working organically using native yeast and doing all of those things, dating back to well before the natural wine movements popularity here. Going back to Alicia's point earlier when we were talking about carbonic maceration and the crews and kind of your more quality doing it a little bit longer. This one actually goes for 10 days, carbonic maceration for 10 days. They still do carbonic maceration on this one. The fruit is so much more linear and sleek. That reminds me that the only wine that didn't use carbonic maceration of any type, and forgive me if I said this, was the Poncier. They go straight. They go traditional, right? Maybe that's why it's lacking some of the fruit that the others have. Yeah, possibly. It's actually, honestly, it's surprising to me that even with, not based on the profile of the wine, and even with Chateau Tivens which we're about to have, but the trend is that more and more crews are going traditional winemaking, and so it's, I don't know. In my head, I just associate more traditional there, and so I'm surprised actually that only one of the bunch was doing it. Yeah, I agree. Do you think people are ready for this level of funk? It's funky. But it's not that funky. If you're a rhone drinker, you would definitely enjoy this. I feel like you get some similar funk in certain, like Shat Enough to Pop and stuff like that. With some similar characteristics. Different dimension of fruit. Yes. Chris, are you tasting the wine? Am I? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Jen and I were talking earlier. Do you think a little bit of the funk is like any bread that's coming through on it? Or do you just think it's just a little wild all in just- I'm not really getting any bread, but with the- Oh, come on. There's bread here for sure. Yes. Really? Yes, positively. All right. It's not that surprising given that a lot of these producers will not use any SO2 until bottling. Yes. Because of this natural way they're doing things there. You're bound to get some interesting funk. I think this is a delightful funk though. No, it's good. It's off-putting any way. Oh, no, I love it. It's got that bright cherry fruit and as the Ohio players would say, it's funky like nine cans of shaven powder, whatever that means. I'm sorry, who says that? The Ohio players. Roller coaster love. Legendary soul and funk bands. Way before your time. fire? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Free your vine and your ass will follow. Nice. It is funky. I thought that was P-Funk. It is, but I just said- It's funkadelic, yeah. I said vine instead of mind, get it? Nicely done, Roger. Now, I like this a lot. But I mean, again, I'm like a star beer fanatic, wild beer fanatic, so my palate is acclimated. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and it should be noted before moving on that the Julien Sunier Morgon is only 32.99 for a very delicious Crewe Beaujolais. However, is it double the value of the last one? It's different. It offers something that the others don't, but- Totally. But yeah, for that jump-up in price. I was afraid you were going to say something north of 30 bucks. What happened? Morgon used to be 20 bucks. People came to discover Beaujolais. Hostage stamps and gasoline too. I even, when I was working at Grand, I mean, four years ago, not that long ago, it was, oh yeah, let me tell you the great value you can buy in Beaujolais. And you really can't, I don't know, you really can't say that anymore. There are, of course, exceptions. We just tasted that one for 17.99, but crews are getting expensive. They've had some good vintages, but they've also had some problems as well, and that's continuing. But I think too, there's kind of the cat got out of the bag, and everyone followed the wine community and trying to appreciate them, and credit to them too. I think winemaking and quality has really continued to improve. Okay, let's go to the last one, Jenna. Tell us about this, because I'm a big fan. So somebody in the female Jeffrey was like, look at all these white and black labels. They look a little modern. We need to dial it back to medieval times, like a kid's storybook. Can you make our label look like a kid's storybook from the 20s? It does. The ones with the little golden books that had the gold spine. Yeah, that's the one. But make sure that it only has very muted colors on a faded yellow label. It looks out of date. That's what I'm saying about this bottle. The design looks like my grandma would have found it old-fashioned. Well, it's historic, like French wine making, history, you know? Yeah. I mean, this is an old estate, so it shouldn't be that surprising. Well, why don't they just slap the three-digit number on the front of the label and go with that? It's actually an original bottle. They just keep reusing the same bottles and the same label. Yeah. It's a deal you make when you buy it. Anyway. I love this label. Of course you do. Oh, God. It's going to go with his stuffed owl and squirrel collection in his basement. I like the coat of arms on the top of the vintage. It's pretty cool. It's only been around since 1877, so please. New kids on the block. Practically new. And what we're all talking about is the Chateau Tivin. Tivin? Tivin? Côte de Bruy. That's the one. And this one is on the south side of 30, $29.99, so pretty still in affordable range. And would you say Côte de Bruy? Côte de Bruy. There is a Bruy and then there's Côte de Bruy. So there's going to be two different crews and this is the Côte de Bruy. This is the 2020 vintage. It's actually one of the oldest estates on Mount Bruy, so there's, which is probably what this Mount is on the label, actually. That orange lump behind that building is Mount Bruy. The orange lump is Mount Bruy, would be my best guess. I have to assume that Côte de Bruy is on the sides of Mount Bruy. Where's Bruy pop proper? On the top or somewhere? Bruy surrounds Côte de Bruy. Côte de Bruy, Bruy surrounds Côte de Bruy. So the side of Bruy is in the middle of Bruy. So Côte de Bruy is like the doughnut hole. Bruy is like the doughnut. French is stupid. their laws are stupid. The way that they describe things is stupid. Can we interject to just the nose of this wine? Because it's very intriguing. It's the most complex of the day by far. There's so much going on. Nothing I feel is completely easily identifiable right out the gate. Super interesting. This is dark and brooding by comparison of all the others. This seems much more brambly. It almost seems out of the category to me. We've switched to something totally different. Yeah. This is definitely the most serious expression. This is a fantastic expression. It's been among my go-to Beaujolais for over 20 years. I buy this pretty much every vintage and it ages nicely too. As you noted, it's got some power. Try this in five years or so and it will be absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. This is delicious. This is a beautiful one. I had this two weeks ago on my roof with mushroom burgers and it was amazing. They're sneaking in something else here. It has a cab-like tannic backbone. No, it doesn't. None of these others have. Really? No. Yeah, I wouldn't go that far. There's definitely more tannic structure. Why am I on this one? Jim, cue the buzzer after that. In Greg's defense, sometimes when you have a lot of low tannin wines in the beginning of your day. That one medium tannin suddenly seems- The one medium tannin seems a little bit high. But yeah, I just want to sell this as something that's really tannic. Yeah, go grab us a bottle of Heights Martha's Vineyard, and then we'll come back to this and see how it stands up. Yeah, there's definitely more tannic structure compared to the other ones we've tried. I think that I pick up a little bit of that sulfury fizziness underneath the fruit also. If you shook this bottle up, it would foam. I don't want to buzz you two times straight. Please. Knowing this producer, I don't think they're killing it with sulfur. No, definitely not. I don't get any sulfur notes in this at all. And yeah, it's low, low additions for sure. Although one thing I would note that even wines that I like, that are part of the more natural movement in Beaujolais, particular Marcel Lapierre, if you age them for a while, ironically, they invariably, at least in my experience, get a little fizz to them. Doesn't exist when you open it early. I mean, that's a testament to some very low sulfur. There's a little residual fermentation of some kind going on in the bottle. I think that there's gas in it. You might be getting like, yeah, as Chris said- Carbon dioxide? Just a little bit of reformat. And so yeah, there's a little CO2 as a result. I'd like to put forward that I think this wine actually kind of combines a lot of the elements that each individual wine up until this point kind of had. I think you have like the bramble fruit that we talked about. I think you have the really refreshing acidity that we talked about really early on. I think you have that kind of wild sourness, but in a kind of a more measured way. You have minerality, you have ageability and structure. I kind of think it ties everything together. Perfect. McGlofflin, that's the show. There's nothing more to be said. Yeah, I totally agree with everything you just said. And it has the best label. I think these last two, they kind of show what Beaujolais, now that it's getting more popular and going up in price as well, and there's more demand for it. I think these really show another side of Beaujolais that not a lot of people may be familiar with. Like for example, if we were blind tasting these, the first four, I would have right away been like, that's Gamay, whether it's from Beaujolais or not, I would have known it, at least it's Gamay. These last two, I can't say I would have guessed Gamay right away. That would not have been my first guess, blind tasting these. They're very interesting and very much more complex than the other ones. I agree. And most people have really only had kind of those first three expressions. And so please know they're serious expressions of Beaujolais and they're worth getting. And I want to go to the price point on this because I actually think it's tucked under. This one is $29.99. $28.99? Or $28.99? Is it? It's one of those. Yeah, I'll definitely pile on here and say that regardless of grape variety or region of origin, at $29 bucks, this wine is worth every penny. It doesn't matter. You know, just put it on the world stage. It's an awesome wine. Yeah, definitely. And it is, yeah, $29.99 for this one, which we were discussing before the Julien Sunier Morgon is $32.99. So I kind of prefer this one. I like them both, but I prefer the complexity of this one a little more, honestly. And like Chris was saying, for $29, $30 bucks, it's a steal. You are seeing people gravitate as burgundy. I mean, burgundy is so unreachable these days for kind of the average drinker. And so you are seeing more of that interest come south to Beaujolais and some other areas, no doubt, in the world. But I think immediately and for the purpose of this episode, to Beaujolais and those that are made as the one we just had and those doing traditional winemaking in the crews that can age for a while, they after five, ten years, they taste like burgundy, honestly. So, get after the 30 bucks. Yeah, I agree. I mean, right now, I'm drinking 15s and 16s from this producer, and they're super delightful, and they're not near the end of their lives by any stretch of the imagination. And if you can imagine what you would pay for a basic burgundy, you know, a $30 bottle of basic burgundy, you are not going to get the kind of pleasure out of that wine that this one delivers or the ageability, generally speaking. Agreed. I like the Morgon. I think it's sleek. It has like a racing-ness. I would never have pinned you for that one. Right? I don't understand it either. I wanted to be off-played by it. That's so surprising. Yeah. All right. Roger, what was your favorite? The last one. Yeah, but you should carry it around and then have one guy playing the lute and another guy slapping together two coconut halves to sound like a horse. Jenna? It's tough between the last two, but I think I'm going to go with the last one. The Mulan gets major props for the value. Yes. That's a good point. The Mulan for $17.99 is really- Yes. If I'm going in and spending 30 bucks, I'm getting the T-von. If I want something under 20, I'm going for the Mulan. Yeah. I mean, the Mulan was good, but those other two stood out to me. Agreed. So lots to discover. All right. So we got to try five different 2020 Beaujolais. Very exciting. Thanks for walking us through. Yeah, Jenna. Thanks. Thank you for joining. I was never as skeptical about Beaujolais. Thanks, Jenna. Delightful. Delightful. Thanks, Chris. You're welcome. Who's doing the outro? Chris, can you do the outro? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Next week, we'll be back with something completely different. A man with a tape recorder up his nose. Was that Monty Python 2? How many Monty Pythons can we do in this one? Thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed next week with that. I thought you just asked Chris to do the outtake. I did, but he did it. It took really long. Chris, I loved your take, but... Just leave them both in. Emphasize that they should leave us a positive review on the podcast platform of their choosing. Good work, Roger. Social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Comments at binnys.com. Your questions. Hit us up. I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Alisha. I'm Chris. And I'm Jenna. Keep tasting.