Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (rosé)

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (rosé)

(for the 2021 red one, read here my review : https://wineinamerica.wordpress.com/2021/11/18/beaujolais-nouveau-georges-duboeuf-2021-red/

Second up, the rosé version  : the Beaujolais Nouveau Rosé Georges Duboeuf 2021. 12% vol.

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (rosé)

Again I tasted it in my newest glass acquisition, the Karen Macneil « Flavor First » series, in the Crisp and Fresh wine glass (intended as per its name. for crisp and fresh wines). All about those glasses can be found here:  https://winespeed.com/product/flavor-first-wine-glasses/

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (rosé)

Pale bright pink with purple hues. No rim, no legs.

Nose : strawberry, raspberry, the powdered type like in the Haribo candies.

In mouth : fizzy, slightly green, then strawberry and raspberry too, both on the green side. Not very powerful but crisp and refreshing. It’s actually rather pleasant as a taste of summer in the cold New Jersey weather that we have there days (hint : it’s only getting colder, so hooray to the rosé to warm things up). Just for that reason, I would advise to pop a bottle open.

A hint of violet (the flower) as a finale, coming from the raspberry notes. A slight bitterness in the middle mouth. It’s a rather dry wine, which I prefer by far.

The more I tasted / drank it, the more I got these violet (flower) notes which make the wine even more pleasant than I found initially. I actually prefer it to the red version this year. Way better than last year’s rosé.

After the tasting, I paired it with some bok choy Chinese cabbage just sautéed with garlic, olive oil, pepper and squeezed lemon juice, served with plain Chinese noodles seasoned with lime Ponzu sauce.

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (rosé)

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (red)

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (red)

Here we are again : today Thursday, November 18, le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé, in red and rosé as well.

First up, the red version (the classic usual one) : the Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021. 12.5% vol.

To shake things up, this year I tasted it in my newest glass acquisition, the Karen Macneil « Flavor First » series, in the Crisp and Fresh wine glass (intended as per its name. for crisp and fresh wines) (read here all about those glasses :  https://winespeed.com/product/flavor-first-wine-glasses/

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (red)

Deep purple red, with bright pink hues. Wide pink rim. Short lived legs.

While pouring the wine into the glass I could already smell some red fruit notes.

Nose : red fruit, fruit esters, a hint of vanilla. No banana ? !

Yes, banana actually : the banana comes after swirling but only immediately after swirling, then it disappears. The banana note is slightly on the green side. Also a powdered banana like in the Haribo banana candy.

In mouth : very fruity, red fruit, banana and also some bubble gum like it sometimes happens.

The wine is not dry (but not sweet at all fortunately) and not very acid, less than usual, which makes it rather pleasant actually. It’s a little fizzy too, as one could expect for such a young wine.

In middle mouth some red fruits, almost on the cooked side but not caramelized.

After mouth : grape juice and yeasts / brioche.

A hint of licorice or even anise as a finale. I found some licorice on the nose also after drinking and letting it sit in the glass for a while.

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (red)

Actually not bad this year. Not as good as the 2018 year that was an exceptional year for the Beaujolais Nouveau across all wineries. (read here : https://wineinamerica.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/beaujolais-nouveau-2018-round-up/  ). That year we had been drinking it for almost 2 months, over all the holidays and up to the first days of January 2019.

So not as good as the exceptional year of 2018 but way better than the past 2 years, 2019 and 2020, to the extent that I will go buy another bottle or 2 and even the magnum that they had at my store (Stirling Fine Wines, in Stirling, NJ).

After tasting I paired it with some paella tonight. Originally it was not the wine I had in mind to pair with the paella (I had in mind a Spanish red wine from Trader’s Joe) but as I was planning the paella for tonight, I remembered that this Thursday (today) was the Beaujolais Nouveau day, so…

Beaujolais Nouveau Georges Duboeuf 2021 (red)

Untied Brewing Company Stratification of the Galaxy India Pale Ale

Untied Brewing Company Stratification of the Galaxy India Pale Ale

That’s an old release (from summer 2020) from my local brewery Untied Brewing Company, as I am trying to catch up on my back log. I revisited it tonight before publishing, from some cans I had left over (they keep for a very long time). I found exactly the same tasting impression that I recorded in my notes last summer (2020).

It’s an IPA called Stratification of the Galaxy and it was released in summer 2020. 6.8% vol. 

Untied Brewing Company Stratification of the Galaxy India Pale Ale

Very pale yellow and very cloudy, thick white foam.

Nose : hoppy and flowery, some bitterness too.

In mouth : bitter, caramel, oats, wheats, cereals. Delicate and well balanced. I don’t taste the tropical notes they mention in their notes but rather some licorice and wood substances.

If it were a wine I would say that I notice some tannins. It’s not the case of course but definitely some licorice. Wheat and oats again in middle mouth. This is also an excellent beer though I would not classify it in the refreshing type. More a robust beverage calling for some solid autumn food. 

Excellent long after taste that lingers with notes of roasted cereals, almost some truffle notes too. 

Add on from tonight as I revisited it : definitely some mushroom and truffle notes that are present and noticeable. 

Untied Brewing Company Stratification of the Galaxy India Pale Ale

Untied Brewing Company Stratification of the Galaxy India Pale Ale

Untied Brewing Company More Content is King India Pale Ale

Untied Brewing Company More Content is King India Pale Ale

Another IPA from my local brewery, Untied Brewing Company. 2 years ago I reviewed their Content is King IPA beer (read here : https://wineinamerica.wordpress.com/2019/12/05/untied-brewing-company-content-is-king-india-pale-ale/ )

They also had another variation of this beer, that I never had the opportunity to try, called More Content is King. Recently they brewed it again, so I went to fetch it.

6.8% vol.

Untied Brewing Company More Content is King India Pale Ale

In glass, it’s whitish and extremely cloudy with a thin white foam.

Nose : citrus and fruity, yellow fruits such as apricot and peach and some passion fruit.

In mouth : very bitter (more bitter than the usual IPAs we drink from Untied), fruity, citrus and yellow fruits. My son finds some jelly beans taste (the weird flavored jelly beans). Lemon, passion fruit, peach but very bitter. The bitterness lingers quite a while in the after mouth with some cereals and malt.

Very good but very different from the usual lot of Untied IPAs, my son didn’t like it at all. As for me I found it interesting and « robust » , a beer that would call for food rather than being a refreshing drink by itself.

Announcement : new YouTube channel

Something different today, I don’t do that often but I just want to make an announcement and shamelessly include a plug for my new YouTube channel.

I just finished to prepare and publish my brand new YouTube channel, called « Positive Attitude ». It’s not very original as a name but I can change it down the road if needed. I already have a channel to store videos I use in my blogs, as it is free to store those videos on YouTube as opposed to store them in WordPress. But that other channel is not a real channel per se, in the sense some of the videos in there are only short clips and most of them are not edited. They just serve to illustrate some of my blog post and are meant to be viewed in the context of the blog post. So, in order to separate real content from this storage channel and make a true YouTube channel, I created this new one which will only contain full edited videos made for the purpose of the channel.

The subtile is « the art of seeing the glass half full » to give the tone of the videos to come and also to help with the search on YouTube. When searching for « Positive Attitude » there are hundreds of results even when filtering with channel name only (without filtering it’s thousands and thousands of course) but using the subtile line it’s way less and my channel pops up within the first results fortunately.

The goal with this new channel is to focus on everything that is positive, without being silly of course, but see the glass half full as much as possible. There is enough negativity everywhere these days (sometimes rightfully so, sometimes not) and I want to contribute with my small share (the colibri share)  of small positive things from daily life and routines. No need to climb the Everest nor do « once in a lifetime » activities, to find nevertheless some positive moments and spread them around. Just to feel good and that the viewer too feels good or feels better, is entertained for a while, educated or inspired.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel if you like the idea, the content and the videos (only one to date but more will be coming), it’s easy just click on the subscribe button under the video on YouTube, please also like if you enjoyed it, comment etc.

Here is the direct link to the channel :

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqrtcssyx7-KBe119AUEEpw

and to my first published video on the channel (about a new pastry book I just received, not wine related but food related, close enough…)

Sorry for the non wine/beer related content tonight. I thank you for reading and no worries, the usual wine or beer reviews will be back with the next post in a couple of days. 

However in the YouTube channel I might publish some wine/beer tasting (or shopping) videos down the road, as those make up positive moments in life indeed. 

Untied Brewing Company two variations on Rays of Haze Imperial India Pale Ale

Last winter my favorite local brewery, Untied Brewing Company, released 2 variations of their popular Imperial IPA, named Rays of Haze, which happens to be our all time favorite of all. When drinking it in winter or gloomy weather, it really brings some rays of sun in your day. As Rays of Haze is an absolute favorite, I couldn’t pass on those variations that were released in November 2020 for the Stratospheric Rays of Haze and February 2021 for the Galactic Rays of Haze. As the names imply, one has some Strata hop added to the Rays of Haze original recipe and the second one has some Galaxy hop added to the recipe.

I am merging the 2 reviews in one post but I tasted them as they were released last winter. Both are double IPA or Imperial IPA, 8.3% vol,  like the original Rays of Haze that I reviewed here : https://wineinamerica.wordpress.com/2019/11/07/untied-brewing-company-rays-of-haze-imperial-india-pale-ale/

Stratospheric Rays of Haze

First up : Stratospheric Rays of Haze

Cloudy, deep yellow with thin whitish foam.

Nose : very fruity, tropical fruits :  mango, papaya, guava, etc.

In mouth : tropical fruits, very round and very fruity, very similar to Rays of Haze as expected and as excellent as Rays of Haze. Some lime in middle mouth, also some bitterness (grapefruit). A bit flowery in middle mouth too, maybe some lychee. 

The difference with Rays of Haze is a slight smoky note in the after mouth but that stays delicate. And also a bit less fruity than Rays of Haze. 

All in all excellent.

Galactic Rays of Haze

Second up : Galactic Rays of Haze

Cloudy, pale yellow, thick beige foam.

Nose : fruity, very fruity, tropical fruits

In mouth : fruits, tropical fruits, then bitter and herbal.

Also less fruity than the original Rays of Haze. 

Very good. My son found it very good too. My favorite of 2 variations is the Stratospheric one.