INSIDER'S PICK: 2019 LAURENT PERRACHON JULIENAS 'ROCHE BLEUE' $22.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

Because 'Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive!' today, and people may be more in the mind of trying Beaujolais for Thanksgiving, we figured we should go ahead and get a Cru Beaujolais, the REAL stuff, out for the last Insider's Pick of November. Basically, you can consider the entire row of Beaujolais on the Thanksgiving recommended list, it just depends on where on the price spectrum you want to land. Julienas is one of the two northern Crus in Beaujolais, along with St. Amour, and doesn't get nearly the attention of its neighbors. High granite levels in the soil are what makes the Gamay grape really sing in this region, but in Julienas the clay content is higher so the wines don't have the reputation for being as intense and floral. This definitely does not fall into that category, delivering Beaujolais character every bit of the measure of any other Cru. Named for the blue stones in their vineyards (from the clay), this has lovely flowery aromatics, loads of cherry skin and tart cranberry but also darker fruits and even some earthy blueberry tones. The palate isn't as full and textured as wines from Fleurie or Moulin-A-Vent are famously known to be, more light and lip-smacking with bright acidity and very fine light tannins, but definitely pulls out some gamey tones in the finish. Not one to stash away for future Thanksgivings as it's pretty well ready to go, but do give it a decant or as much time open as possible to really allow the floral character to build, it will definitely make everything at the table taste that much better. 

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