Julienas disaster at Maison Fleurie

1 comment
I've just been talking to Martine Thévenet at Domaine de la Maison Fleurie, in Fleurie, concerning our latest order of Fleurie "Le Clos de la Dîme" and Juliénas. Don't ignore Gamay - Beaujolais crus are proper grown-up wine, especially from a producer like Mme Thévenet who likes her wines to express the variety due to their vintage and the land their grapes were grown on.

We'll be getting in some samples of her Beaujolais-Villages to compare with those of other estates waiting on the sample shelves, so that's good. To make up the case of samples, we'll also get to try the two Fleuries made on pieces of land we don't usually buy from: 'Les Déduits" and "Le Mont". That's good, too: it's been a long while since we did.

However, the bad news was that there'll be no Juliénas 2008 at all, at all. Hail destroyed the whole crop - nearly eleven and a half acres (4.6 of yer metric hectares), so Mme T. will have to eke out the 2006 when the 2005 is all gone. I'm always amazed at the resilience of our suppliers when bad things like this happen, but I suppose there's no use crying over the stable door once the stone has rolled. In the meantime, I recommend these medium-bodied but oh! not average red wines to you.