Inspector Grape continues his quest to find soft and juicy wines. He turns to the Beaujolais region where the best wines provide the yardstick for all the world’s attempts to put red freshness into a bottle.  This wine is essentially flirtatious with a juicy aroma that, combined with its promise of appetizing acidity, is sufficient to release the gastric juices before the first sip.

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Cuvee Des Vignerons

Cuvee Des Vignerons, Beaujolais 2007, Waitrose £4.99
This smelled and looked exactly as I expected, with a light red colour and a nose of cherries, plums and raspberries. It made my mouth water and my head fill with thoughts of bubblegum! I must admit that the taste was a little thin and lacking that lovely strawberry that I was so hoping it would taste of. But hey this was a very cheap wine and it’s made from the Gamay grape that was never suppose to be heavy and intense. *No Stars*

Georges Buboeuf Chiroubles

Georges Duboeuf Chiroubles 2007, Waitrose £8.99
The Chiroubles Cru (wine producing area) is the highest of all the Beaujolais areas and is generally responsible for producing lighter wines but after pouring it into my glass I soon realized that the wine had an attractive inky purple colour and smelled of black cherries and strawberries and I was delighted to taste the same on the palate.

This almost bubble gummy taste is the result of a single wine making technique used throughout the whole of Beaujolais called *Carbonic Maceration*. The winemaker literally places whole bunches of grapes in the fermentation tanks and these grapes undergo intracellular fermentation and produces aromas reminiscent of ripe pears, bananas and bubblegum. Serve it slightly chilled, it is delicious flirtatious wine. *3 Stars*

Bouchard Pere & Fils Fleurie

Bouchard Pere & Fils Fleurie 2007, Waitrose £9.99
This is the most expensive of all the Beaujolais wines and for what it’s worth it is the wine growing region in France with the prettiest name. This was delicious wine and I thought it really showed what Beaujolais can bring to the table when it comes to soft and elegant red wine. I loved it and thought it would go really well with that honey roast chicken that was in the oven. *3 Stars*

Inspector Grape’s Roast Chicken stuffed with grapes – serves 4

Roast Chicken

I large corn-fed chicken
50g butter (room temp)
salt & pepper

Stuffing:

85g butter1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped
110g breadcrumbs
fresh parsley chopped
175g seedless grapes chopped

Melt the butter and lightly fry the onion, remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, Season with salt and pepper Loosen the breast skin and fill with stuffing, don’t overfill because the skin will burst when cooking.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper all over, rub with softened butter, cover with foil and bake for about 1hour 20 min.

Remove foil 30min before serving and allow to brown.

Serve your perfectly roast chicken with fried rice and wilted spinach or buttered new potatoes.

Why do we  bother tasting Beaujolais when the Japanese just take a bath in it?  Clearly Inspector Grape missed a trick!

Metro Friday 21 Nov 2008 - Japanese Beaujolais

Next week’s shopping list:
Classic Cote du Rhone, 2007, Waitrose £3.99
La Rectorie, Cotes du Ventoux, 2007, Waitrose £4.99
Chat-en-Oeuf, 2007, Waitrose, £4.99