“I like this wine,” my boyfriend said from his perch on the couch where he was watching the Dodgers fight the Phillies. I paused in the middle of my Chicken Marsala to double-check that I’d grabbed the right bottle.

Yup, there it was, a 2006 Chateau de Pierreux, from Brouilly that we had received free for review. So why did my big-wine, the bigger the bolder the better Napa-Cab loving boyfriend like this wine?

It was clear as soon as I tasted it. As I tweeted the next day, it tasted like tannic jelly.

Not that it’s a bad thing. It just wasn’t exactly what I expected.

I had pictured it as a light, fruity, easy-going (did I mention light) Beaujolais but this little wine had an unexpected tannic backbone!

It was a deep mahogany color, so dark it was almost like black velvet. It was indeed jammed full of red fruits. I picked up raspberries, cinnamon, and nutmeg jamminess. It had a tannic, dry backend and even after it had been open a while, it never softened. Here’s what bothers me. Some of the reviews I read online described it as having soft tannins but that wasn’t my experience.

It went okay with the Chicken Marsala although the food outshone the wine and I wouldn’t necessarily pair the two up again. And I’m sure if the Dodgers had beat the Phillies, it might have tasted just a bit better.