Today is the third Thursday in November and the Beaujolais Nouveau (BOE-zjoh-lay new-VOE) has arrived!! So what you ask? Well, let the Wine Witch give you a little background here.
Beaujolais Nouveau (BN from now on to save my typing fingers) is made from the Gamay grape and comes from the Beaujolais region of France. For the newer winos in the audience, the French name their wines from where they come from and not the grapes that go into them. Nouveau is the French word for new, so what we have is new Gamay wine from the Beaujolais region of France. How new? This wine was grapes less than 4-6 weeks ago.
Why one minute after midnight on the third Thursday of November? The French have a lot of laws governing their wine production. Originally the release date was the 15th of Novembers, but back in 1985 it was changed to the third Thursday. The Wine Witch’s personal opinion is that this was a pure marketng ploy to capitalize on the American Thanksgiving the following week. Before we go any further, I do not think this is a good choice for your Thanksgiving dinner. Look for a future post on what wines will pair with your turkey.
There is a lot of hype surrounding the release of BN. Even though this is purely manufactured by a marketing genius named Geoges Duboeuf (the primary distributor of the stuff), it is still a lot of fun. In restaurants, bars, and home parties millions of people are sipping the same wine at the same time, which is kinda cool to think about.
Why is BN so popular? Is it more than the hype? Bottom line – it is just a fun wine that is meant to be slurped in great quantities rather than sipped. It is probably as close to a white wine as a red wine can get. You serve it cool. There are absolutely no tannins involved. It is light and fruity (BUT NOT SWEET). Since the wine is so new, it is almost all about the grapes and not so much the vitner. It does vary from year to year. I loved the 2005, but thought the 2006 was pretty boring.
The 2007 BN will probably arrive in your wine shop in the next several days. Please buy some and become a part of this wine tradition. Two cautions. First, Gamay Beaujolais from California is NOT the same thing. Second, buy it and consume it before the New Year. After that it, begins to fall off most years.
Cheers!
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