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Beaujolais Nouveau 101 - The Young Wine

14th Nov 2006, 04:52 GMT

Filed under: Tastings, Parties, Wine, Business, Trends, Happy Hour, Did you know?, America, Europe, France Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! Nouveau means new in French, which is basically what these wines are. They are very young Beaujolais wines of lesser quality that are created to be drunk weeks, as opposed to months or years after the harvest, and are the first wines of the season. Beaujolais are made from the Gamay Noir a Jus Blanc grape variety. The Beaujolais Nouveau style started in the 1800's and has developed and grown since then. All grapes used in making wine in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand, a law that is only enforced in one other wine region, Champagne. The Beaujolais region is 34 miles long and apx 8 miles wide with nearly 4,000 grape growers. Beaujolais Nouveau cannot be made from grapes grown in the 10 crus (great growths) of Beaujolais, only from grapes coming from the appellations (wines distinctive of a particular area) of Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages. Usually around one third of the crop each year is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau. Technically Beaujolais Nouveau should be called Beaujolais Primeur since by French and European rules a wine released during the period between its harvest and some time in the following spring, is called primeur. A wine released during the time between its own and the following years harvest is called nouveau. These wines are very fruity and light with a bit lower alcohol levels than most red wines; they should be drunk within a few months of bottling. Beaujolais Nouveau is designed for drinking, not fancy tastings with discussions on the wines flaws and merits, and most definitely this is not a wine for collectors to store and age. It is a red wine for white wine drinkers to enjoy, since it has many of the characteristics of a white wine.Due to the low alcohol by volume (abv) of around 10%-13% abv they just don't have much staying power. While they start off life young, they die young as well. They undergo a quick fermentation style of only three days called carbonic maceration where the grapes are tossed in huge vats whole. Yes, that's right, no crushing except for those that get crushed at the bottom of the vat by the weight. As the grapes ferment they release carbon dioxide and this gas bubbles to the top, which help ferment the grapes even more. This process makes the grapes ferment at a much higher speed than normal in crushed grapes. Some of the Beaujolais Nouveau made in the last few years have a slightly higher abv from a process called chaptalization where some sugar is added to the grapes before fermentation to allow a higher alcohol level to develop in the wine. These higher alcohol wines may last up to six months or a year before they start to decline in taste. Due to the short ferment the wine has no tannin and so no bite or bitter taste. Don't take this wine seriously like a classic wine such as Beaujolais, but just enjoy it for what it is. Because it is almost like a white wine in taste it should be drunk slightly chilled to bring out its fruit. The excitement over Beaujolais Nouveau was at first a local thing in the Beaujolais region. Locals would flock to the pubs in the fall to drink the fruity young wines poured from jugs dipped out of the casks. The nouveau wine was drunk as a temporary replacement until the fine Beaujolais were finished with their slow ferment and long aging. Eventually people outside the region, especially in Paris, heard about these young wines being released and the fervor in which they were drunk, and wanted to try them as well. It became a big deal with people eagerly awaiting the first wines of the season and trying to get them in a race to be first. In 1938 the government stepped in with regulations on the how, where, and when of this wine. In 1951 the laws were rescinded and the Union Interprofessional des Vins de Beaujolais was formed and took over regulation and Beaujolais Nouveau was officially recognized as a legitimate wine, with the official release date set for November 15th. By the 1960's the release dates caused a major fuss, with people having the wines shipped to them all over the world as fast as possible. Boat, train, plane, wagon, donkey, an even elephants were used to transport cases of the new wine to the far reaches of the world. In 1985 the date was changed to the third Thursday in November. A date surrounded by a lot of media and marketing hype where people would wait expectantly for the shipments of wine to arrive from France. On that day all over France, and the world, you hear Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! (The Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!) Now the wine is shipped before that date but wine retailers around the world have to agree not to sell it before midnight on the third Thursday. This year that will be on November 16, 2006. Nowadays there are over 120 festivals in the Beaujolais region, with many more around the world, to celebrate the release of this wine each year. I know that this year I will be at a friends shop to try the wines on the first day. Then I will report back as soon as I recover with my thoughts on the 2006 vintage. If you want to see where some of the biggest festivals are then check it out here. The best known Beaujolais Nouveau maker is Georges Deboeuf, the largest negociant in the region; and who is a tireless supporter for Beaujolais Nouveau and his wines in general. He is basically the one who created the modern day excitement in the 1960's over these wines. Since then, over the last 50 years, sales of the nouveau have gone from around one million bottles a year to more than 75 million bottles. Not everyone goes for all the hoopla and excitement over this wine. Many berate it and call it all hype and a lousy wine. Heck, I've straddled the fence myself on this issue. When I worked in the wine trade I both talked up the wine and dismissed it at the same time. I now take the wine for what it is, and enjoy it based on its own merits as a fun, easy drinking wine. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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