2015 Beaujolais Part 2: A Vintage of Richness and Energy

BY JOSH RAYNOLDS | JANUARY 12, 2017

The last three vintages for Beaujolais have been a string of home runs, but 2015 is likely to be the one that delivers the greatest impact and pleasure for most wine lovers. Two thousand fifteen has plenty of candidates for wine of the year; wines that deliver concentration and energy, with opulent fruit character and the classic core of acidity that gives Beaujolais its trademark vivacity. These wines are also built to age but at the same time display an exuberance that makes many of them pretty irresistible now.

As I mentioned in the first installment of our coverage of the 2015s, published last August, 2015 is a vintage whose wines mostly managed to take advantage of a warm, and sometimes hot, growing season while avoiding the potential pitfalls of over-ripeness (Beaujolais with a lack of freshness and energy really misses the point of this appellation). While there are some wines that do show the effects of the heat in a not-so-good way, I have been happily surprised by just how many 2015s show real liveliness, delineation and even tension.