Beaujolais nouveau is coming- Read this post to find out why you should care

If you've never had Beaujolais nouveau but you enjoy wine, then please read on. Until last year, I had never even heard of the wine, let alone wondered why I should care about it. Then I had my first Beaujolais nouveau experience.

As accurately written on Wikipedia, "Beaujolais nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is the most popular vin de primeur, fermented for just a few weeks then officially released for sale on the third Thursday of November." The wine is only available this one time a year, and given the limited quantities, it sells out fast. Last year, I bought the last two bottles at the local Beverages and More, and that was only 4 days after the wine was released.

I am typically not a Beaujolais wine drinker, but this one time a year I definitely make an exception. The wine is just fun to drink. It is not complex, it has limited structure, but it is very drinkable and has a festive taste to it. I can't really think of the words to explain how a wine is "festive", so I encourage you to buy a bottle to understand what I mean. Definitely note that due to its short fermentation period (3 weeks), the wine has to be drunk really quickly, which for me has never been a problem.

To read more about the Beaujolais nouveau, check out the Wikipedia page. If you've read enough and want to give this wine a try, don't fret, the 3rd Thursday of November is almost here!

Comments

[Gunnar]

I've always thought that Beaujolais Nouveau was totally lame but I just got a chance to taste the stages from grape to bottle at a winery here in Napa and it was quite interesting and gave me a better perspective on wine in different stages. I was almost floored by the intense flavors of a high quality grape (these ones were $6,000 per ton as compared to normally a few hundred dollars per ton). Got to sort some grapes too which got quite sticky but it was interesting to learn what goes in or out and they were of average quality which still is soooo much better then the watery junk we get in the stores but nowhere near the $6K/ton ones. The difference between the stages of fermentation I tried (on hold in a cold tank waiting for more similar grapes, just started, a few days, a week, two weeks, special batches for blends, etc) and what comes after (ready to go into the barrel(yuck!), from the barrel early, from the barrel later, young bottle, older bottle) was highly educational. I'll definitely do that again next year and now it's a lot more fun to try wines from that winery(it supports three vineyards nearby). Definitely going to visit the vineyard/winery that has those $6,000 grapes too as soon as I can. Luckily I have one bottle based on their grapes here at home from 2004. It was a gift and I had no idea that it was such a "fancy" wine. Can't wait to try it but I really should restrain myself and give it a few more years. If I can.

[Sara]

Back when I was serving at a restaurant, we had a few cases ordered of the Beaujolais Nouveau, and of course we had a contest to sell this merry little wine, and my favorite line to use and sell it, was A) this is a limited opportunity to get your hands on this and for $28 (restaurant price) you will be sorry for missing out and B) Festive, festive, festive lol. Such a fun bottle to promote. We need more festive limited run budget wines :)