WINE Q & A

Question:

After drinking Beaujolais for many years, I have just been told that Beaujolais can be “put down” (aged in the bottle). If this is so, can you tell me for how many years, and what the good vintages are?

--TIM EASTON, Mission Viejo

Answer:

Beaujolais is made to be drunk young. Its vibrant fruit and zesty spice are at their peak six months to a year after the harvest. A few of the more concentrated wines actually need two years from harvest to allow the flavors to knit and for the complexity of the wine to show through, but usually wines designated Beaujolais or Beaujolais-Villages are intended to be consumed young. (Nouveau Beaujolais should be consumed even younger, within eight to 10 months of harvest. Some may still taste good later, but aging these is a real gamble.)

I have aged a few Beaujolais over the years (some intentionally, most by accident) and found them generally less appealing when they are aged. Even four years pushes the youthful freshness out and replaces it with a maturity that seems a bit odd.

A few Beaujolais do, however, age nicely and become sort of like Burgundy. Notably the more substantial Cru Beaujolais can grow more complex in the bottle. I recently tasted 1990 George Duboeuf Moulin-A-Vent ($12) and found it to be fairly dense and closed-in, more like a Burgundy in some ways than a Beaujolais. I suspect that by 1995 this wine will have evolved into something more complex and Burgundian--and less like traditional Beaujolais.

An indication of that is Duboeuf’s 1985 Morgon, a wine from a very good vintage that I tasted a few weeks ago. It was similar to a Volnay. But keep in mind that only a few of these Cru Beaujolais, such as Moulin-A-Vent, Morgon and Fleurie, age well. They are aged for a time in oak, and the winemaker aims to make them more complex when aged.