Chermette's 2010 Beaujolais Vieilles Vignes Cuvee Traditionelle delivers copious fresh red raspberry and pomegranate accompanied by stimulating tartness and piquancy of their seeds as well as by hints of sage and horseradish. More intensely-and brightly-fruited as well as more invigorating than it's lesser sibling, this also offers an enhanced sense of creaminess that is deliciously paradoxical in the context of its vintage as well as of this wine's cut and vivacity. (Think of how a top-notch Riesling or Pinot Blanc can simultaneously deliver these virtues and you-ll get the idea.) The salinity of smoked meat serves for additional saliva inducement in this Beaujolais's long, buoyant, exuberant, chalk-tinged finish. Plan to enjoy this excellent value (of which, incidentally, there are some 40,000 bottles) over the next 2-3 years. Pierre Chermette - for more about whom, consult in particular my report in issue 184 - didn't start picking his 2010s until September 23rd, with Moulin-a-Vent and Fleurie Les Garants; and completed his harvest of the estate's majority Appellation Beaujolais vineyards on October 5. "Really, the quality was comparable to that of 2009," he asserts, "just at a full degree less alcohol and with higher acidity. Vinification was easy." Yields, he adds, were comparable, and only a slightly more stringent selection of fruit was required than in 2009.Importer: Weygandt-Metzler, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0800