Tesco Beaujolais

For my second op in my challenge from Sarah, I would like to draw your attention to Beaujolais, this is quite a surprising choice for me as I don't normally like red wine.

This is one red wine that can be chilled slightly in summer and this is probably the only reason I like it for when its not chilled it tastes like other reds.

The one thing I do love about red wines is the smell, this often draws me into thinking that maybe I should try a glass and then one taste and yuck!! Normally, for me, red wines do not taste as good as they smell. Beaujolais however does. It smells very fruity and inviting.

On first taste I want more, which is ok if you are not wanting to stay very sober, so this wine is very easy to drink and tastes refreshing and light. Its definitely not like some French wines that are heavy and oaky. I can taste blackcurrants so I suppose you could say that its like grown-ups Ribena, also there is a flowery taste which lingers.

This wine is made from the Gamay grape and has 1999 on the neck of the bottle.

I only drank half of the bottle last night and felt drunk, at 12% vol this is one of the strongest wine I have tried.

As for the colour its a nice deep red I suppose it reminds me of the colour of blood.

I have been drinking it with the Indian takeaway we have just eaten and they compliment each other nicely. I think its one of those versatile wines that you can drink with most foods as last night we had chicken, rice and salad and this wine was great with that too.

At £4.99 a bottle, from bottoms up, (where else hey Trampus!) it's not that cheap but it is the only red wine that I will drink and sometimes I just fancy red wine.

The label on the bottle is very floral.

I put Beaujolais into the search engine Google and it came up with several French sites and I can't read French that well so I went for this one http://www.beaujolais-wines.com/ and you can get more detailed info on this wine but having visited this site I've learnt that Beaujolais region of France is near Lyon just south of Paris and that it is made up of 42,000 estates that make up one huge vineyard. Taken from the site "It is one of the rare French vineyards which only produces Appellation Contrôlée wines (label guaranteeing the quality of wine)." This site is very useful if you are interested in Beaujolais wines as there are 13 wines that are made in this region, with 3 containing the name Beaujolais, they are Beaujolais Villages, Beaujolais (this one), and Beaujolais Nouveaux so I must see if I can try to buy the others and compare them all!

According to the site it says "Serve them chilled (11°C, 48°F) at table, with hors d'œuvre, or indeed at any time simply for pleasure." Also it says that "The wines are authentic, convivial and made for sharing. They are wines for drinking all year round, ideally young when their deliciously intense aromas and fruity floral bouquets are at their peak." I would definitely agree with this but my hubby doesn't like chilled red wine so its looks like I have to drink it all myself, such a shame and I so wanted to share it.

This wine appears to be having the desired effect so I will go now, thanks for reading and if you try this Beaujolais or any other let me know what you think of them!

Amanda