Wine Note: 2006 Philippe Jouan Bourgogne-Passetoutgrain

Just a short note on the wine I mentioned the other day, the 2006 Philippe Jouan Bourgogne-Passetoutgrain.  As stated in that previous post, this wine hails from a subappellation of Bourgogne (Burgundy) and is made from at least 1/3 pinot noir and at most 2/3 gamay.  I am assuming that this particular example is made more or less from those two grapes in that proportion.

I opened the bottle yesterday for dinner, which was completely Trader Joes: spinach and ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce, and vegetable pizza supplemented with goat cheese.  Good dinner, and I bet that the wine–which was described as acidic–would go well with the tomato sauces and cheeses.

Transparent purple color, with a promising nose which smelled like a Cotes-du-Rhone, actually–but my roommate and I found the wine a bit too insubstantial, too acidic.  Some cherry and minerality, but there was no heft.  It was like a pretty girl with no substance behind her smile.  It wasn’t a bad wine, just perhaps a touch too acidic.

Not to write it off too soon, I corked the bottle and put it in the fridge to see if a day to “breath” would round out the wine.  Now I’m drinking it with some more pizza–straight-up cheese–and it’s still acidic but a bit more open.  I noticed a little tinniness on the (short) finish I hadn’t noticed before.  Good with the pizza, actually, and better than what Clive Coates, MW described:

“A blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir might promise to be barely drinkable.  In practise as this wine is largely from grapes which barely ripen in the coolest parts of the  Burgundy vineyards the results are usually worse.  Someone must like it, for the amount produced each year is not negligible.”

from An Encyclopedia of the Wines and Domaines of France

The coolness leading to the low ripeness must lead to the wine’s low alcohol and light body.  Though more pleasurable than Mr. Coates warned, I would probably not buy this wine again.