05 Domaine Les Fines Graves, Beaujolais-Villages

This is the wine that sat in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, the one and only time my family would ever drink wine. You always wanted a taste, even though you were barely old enough to drink soda or coffee, and, if your family was like mine, you could count on that one errant uncle lurking in the hallways to bring you some. This is when many of us fell in love with wine, and the Fine Graves villages-level Beaujolais is a curious, lush expression of that same wine. Grapey enough to be juice squeezed from the cluster by your own hands, yet clearly vinous and full of fermented life, it's one-dimensional, but completely powerful. The muted aroma portends the dry afterthought of tannins, while peppery strawberries, hints of smoke, and pencilly mineral fill the exhaustive palate. I want to sneak this up to my room, turn on an R-rated movie, stay up past midnight, and skip school tomorrow.