Bad News From Beaujolais

We all have wines we reach for when we don't want to be disappointed, dependable standbys who impress year after year. For me, Terres Dorees, Jean-Paul Brun's daring Beaujolais winery, has long been such a wine. If I wanted good Beaujolais, both red and white, and for a good price, I knew a bottle of Brun's would never fail me.

So, I was shocked when I recently sampled Brun's 2008s and found them...awful.

The 2008 vintage was a tough one, the pourers told me. The weather was wet and there was a large loss of crop. The region was hit by hailstorms in August of that year. The conditions show in the usually redoubtable Beaujolais Blanc and Beaujolais L'Ancien Vieilles Vignes, which were both vegetal and sour, with very little fruit.

Brun is not alone, however. I tasted a few other Beaujolais from 2008 and recoiled from one bad, acrid, fruitless glass after another.