On the third Thursday of each November, France releases its Beaujolais Nouveau. The grapes for this wine are picked each year, fermented for a few weeks and then bottled. It is the first wine produced of each vintage.
The official birthday of Beaujolais Nouveau is November 13, 1951, when French laws first permitted this wine to be produced. But it was not until around 1970 that it became a national event throughout France. In 2005, they adopted the catch phrase "It's Beaujolais Nouveau time."
The Beaujolais Nouveau is made from the Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc varietal, commonly known just as Gamay. It is a simple, fruity wine that is often served slightly chilled. You should also drink it within a year as it is not created to last too long. Drink it as fresh as you can.
On Thursday, this wine will be shipped all over the world. It is more expensive the first few weeks of release because of the added shipping costs. Though most brands sell for around $10 a bottle. Many local wine stores will have special tastings of the Beaujolais Nouveau on Thursday, Friday and the weekend.
You can also check out some fun facts about Beaujolais Nouveau.
There is a dark side to the Beaujolais Nouveau as well. Some consider it merely a marketing ploy. Others disdain this simple style of wine. Over the next few days, you will likely read a number of anti-Beaujolais Nouveau articles. And though there may be some truth in their criticisms, there is also good in Beaujolais Nouveau.
Beaujolais Nouveau can be a Gateway wine, the doorway to further wine drinking and appreciation. It is a fruity and easy-drinking wine, one that will appeal to many people who might not otherwise enjoy wine. And once such people find one wine they like, it gets easier then to find them another wine. And then another.
The key to getting people to drink wine is to first find a wine they like. The Beaujolais Nouveau can be that wine. A non-wine drinker is unlikely to start out on a fine Bordeaux or a tannic Cabernet. They often want to start with something fruity or a bit sweet.
So, those of us who are wine lovers should embrace Beaujolais Nouveau and use it to hook our friends and family on wine. I will buy some and share it over the holidays. Will you?
I'm not carrying nouveau because it's so time sensitive and hard for us as internet-based sellers. Certainly we're not anti-Nouveau...
ReplyDeleteHowever, we just got a Piron 2006 "En Beaujolais" which is very fresh and fruit driven and light, a step up from Nouveau in depth and a step down in price, believe it or not. It's sort of between Nouveau and Villages in style...