Domaine des Braves Régnié Beaujolais 2010

Almost everything I know about wine I learned from California wine. After all, I live here, and almost all of the wineries I've ever visited have been here. My friends who are also into wine drink mostly the local stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that, California is a world-class wine producer. Other places just do things a little differently. France, for example. For many people, when they think wine, they automatically think French wine. It's like the mother country for oenophiles.

Last night I decided to try something a little different for me, a French red wine from Beaujolais, a Régnié 2010. If you're like me and mostly familiar with California wine, the name takes a little unpacking. The name of the winery is Domaine des Braves. Régnié is a village and the name of the Cru, of which there are 10 and they make up the highest category of Beaujolais, the name of the overall region. 2010 is the vintage, and Régnié is meant to be drunk within a few years of production. All Beaujolais reds are made using the gamay grape, which is related to pinot noir and to which it has a lot of similarities.

It has a nice bright red color. The nose needed a minute to open up after I poured the glass, but then I started getting some fruit like cherry and blackberry. The taste is pretty fruit-forward. Cherry, plum, and a tartness that lingers on the back of the tongue. It's very much back of the palate, and the front drops off immediately. It's a fairly light-bodied wine, but it has some backbone to it.  I made some chicken risotto and roasted broccoli for dinner, and it matched up very nicely. It seemed to mesh really well with black pepper.

I got the bottle for $15.99 at a wine store. I asked for a Cru Beaujolais, and they had this one, and a Moulin-à-Vent (another Cru) for a few dollars more. He recommended this one (the Régnié) if I was planning on opening it the same day, which I was. I think he was pleased that I asked for this type of wine. He asked me why I was interested, and I said I was just exploring new things, and that I like Burgundy (French pinot noir) so I figured I would like this. And I did.