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| Georges Duboeuf's annually colorful and flavorful Nouveau |
This has nothing to do with your sister's latest boyfriend, but rather wine: Beaujolais Nouveau. What's with all the hoopla surrounding this wine every Thanksgiving? While every other retail store in America is hanging wreaths, candy canes, blinking lights, and other Christmas --- oops, I mean 'holiday' --- decorations this time of year, the wine shops are filled with colorful banners, bunting, and displays exclaiming 'Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive!' You may not understand French, but you know that the store is suddenly filled with prominently displayed bottles decorated with vibrant labels that say more French things---and may as well be all Greek to you.
So other than the fact that you now have to walk around one of these frilly displays and an extra twenty feet to get to your beer, why should you care about this annual wine?
For one thing, Beaujolais Nouveau (boh-jzoe-LAY noo-VOE) is a wine that the snobs refuse to take seriously. That in itself is one fabulous reason to drink it: to make a geek's blood boil and then listen to him/her spout out a condescending diatribe on how Nouveau is SUCH a pedestrian beverage, perhaps not even fit to be called a wine. When the cork dork is finished, you can laugh off the monologue, drop an ice cube into your glass (further infuriating the snob), and suggest that the pompous ass lighten up and enjoy the party!
There's another reason to consider Beau Nouveau: as an introduction to wine. Not everyone likes wine the first time they try it, and usually that's because an 'introductory' wine was not used for proper introductions to the beverage. Often, it is a powerfully tannic red, an astringent white, a noxious homemade juice (grandpa's wine), or a simply cheap bottle that is the first taste of wine. When I hear someone say, 'I don't like wine', I usually interpret that as 'I've not been properly introduced to wine, and what I tasted was not good'. Wine is a complicated drink, and requires a re-education of the palate to truly enjoy (what most people call 'an acquired taste'). Therefore, it makes more sense to begin tasting simpler, easy-to-drink wines such as Beaujolais Nouveau, than say, a $400 bottle of Bordeaux.
Wine for Thanksgiving
Even if you are not a neophyte, Beau Nouveau is a good choice for the holidays. First of all, with its mild acidity, simple tannins, and fun and fruity cherry-bomb flavor, Beau-Nouveau will be enjoyed by nearly everyone. And, because of its simple flavor profile, it will match nicely with just about everything that's put on the Thanksgiving table: from the turkey to the stuffing to the cranberry sauce to the pumpkin pie. Once the December holiday parties begin, Beau-Nouveau remains an easy choice as a cocktail quaffer or a pairing to pigs in blankets, and you won't feel guilty about serving it in a plastic cup.
What IS Beaujolais, Anyway? The Hoopla Explained...
Perhaps Beau-Nouveau's greatest party asset is as a conversation-starter, for this is a wine with a story. What is it, anyway? Well that's where the hoopla comes in. Beaujolais Nouveau is the very first wine of the vintage---in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. In other words, this is the first wine bottled from this year's grapes, which were picked in September. It's not supposed to be a wine of tremendous quality, nor a wine to cellar (quite the contrary: it should be drunk as soon as possible). Rather, it is considered first a celebration of the new vintage, and secondly, a 'prevew' of what the 'real' wine of the vintage will be like, once it is ready---usually March or a few months thereafter. (This 'real' wine is Beaujolais AC, Beaujolais Villages, Beaujolais Cru, and other wines from the Beaujolais region.) After a few months of picking grapes and putting them through the paces of the winemaking process---destemming, crushing, stirring, fermenting, barreling etc.---bottled Nouveau represents the finish line; kind of a 'hey we're done, let's get a taste of it!'. Popping the cork on the young wine is a celebratory symbol of the end of the work, and the beginning of the waiting for the rest of the wine to age in barrels or tanks in the cellar.
There's plenty more to learn about Nouveau, so to keep the conversation going, visit the Quick Tips page. There's also an excellent Beaujolais Nouveau resource online, provided by none other than 'the King of Beaujolais', Georges Duboeuf. WineWithoutRules.com has a wealth of information on Nouveau (including fun ways to enjoy it), videos showing the the process of making wine 'from grape to glass', and a bunch of photos of the gorgeous Beaujolais region. Spend some time on that site, then take the 'Do you know Nouveau?' quiz for a chance to win a free t-shirt. |
