When it comes to making a wine that says anything about its origin or grape variety, whole-bunch fermentation and close cousins carbonic and semi-carbonic maceration sound the death knell.
Within about ten minutes, the scales fell off my eyes. I had blithely tossed "carbonic maceration" into conversations for years while remaining almost totally ignorant of its implications. And what might those be?
Full disclosure notice: I’ve never been a big fan of most of these wines, finding them geared more toward marketing ploy than the palate. Approaching this one even with an open mind unfortunately confirms my prejudices. A nose of overripe berries and apples is somewhat promising but the follow through is both surprising and disappointing. The fruit seems short and tart, especially for a Nouveau—more like cranberry—and the finish is short. Even if you like this sort of thing, I cannot, even putting my predilections aside, recommend this one. The Nouveau Villages, however, is another matter; stay tuned!