Beaujolais Nouveau: History Behind the Third Thursday in November By Brad Prescott At one past midnight on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Romanèche-Thorins, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau begin their journey through a sleeping France to Paris for immediate shipment to all parts of the world. Banners proclaim the good news: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! "The New Beaujolais has arrived!" One of the most frivolous and animated rituals in the wine world has begun. By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region's total annual production, will be distributed and drunk around the world. It has become a worldwide race to be the first to serve to this new wine of the harvest. In doing so, it has been carried by motorcycle, balloon, truck, helicopter, Concorde jet, elephant, runners and rickshaws to get it to its final destination. It is amazing to realize that just weeks before this wine was a cluster of grapes in a growers vineyard. But by an expeditious harvest, a rapid fermentation, and a speedy bottling, all is ready at the midnight hour. By French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is to be released no earlier than the third Thursday of November. http://www.intowine.com/beaujolais2.html
Beaujolais Nouveau: History Behind the Third Thursday in November
By Brad Prescott
At one past midnight on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Romanèche-Thorins, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau begin their journey through a sleeping France to Paris for immediate shipment to all parts of the world. Banners proclaim the good news: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! "The New Beaujolais has arrived!" One of the most frivolous and animated rituals in the wine world has begun.
By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region's total annual production, will be distributed and drunk around the world. It has become a worldwide race to be the first to serve to this new wine of the harvest. In doing so, it has been carried by motorcycle, balloon, truck, helicopter, Concorde jet, elephant, runners and rickshaws to get it to its final destination. It is amazing to realize that just weeks before this wine was a cluster of grapes in a growers vineyard. But by an expeditious harvest, a rapid fermentation, and a speedy bottling, all is ready at the midnight hour. By French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is to be released no earlier than the third Thursday of November.
http://www.intowine.com/beaujolais2.html
One of the fantastic things about drinking Beaujolais Nouveau is that wine snobs won't come within 50 feet of it. So, you have the pleasure of performing all sorts of wine sacrilege on it. Drink it on the rocks, out of a plastic cup, with a straw, straight out of the bottle if you want. There's a whole website devoted to drinking the "wine without rules", including tips on throwing a Beaujolais Nouveau arrival party. http://www.wineweekly.com/wine-basics/beaujolais-nouveau-answers/
http://www.wineweekly.com/wine-basics/beaujolais-nouveau-answers/
It's this anti-elitist trick again: every time you refuse to consume the rubbish one wants to sell you, some clever marketer comes up saying you're a snob. "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
"Beaujolais Nouveau is not a wine to sniff, swirl, and contemplate; it's a wine to pour and party with."
I just had some - no worse than a lot of French wines I've paid a lot more for - yes, I know, I should seek better advice each time. Often I just choose an Australian wine :-) Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
I've always imagined it's like the better of the home-made wines I had in Bulgaria. Bought from the covered market in Sandanski for 6 lv for 2 litres (3 euros to you). It was effectively alcoholic grape juice, but if made well was distinctly more-ish. A couple of times I drank the full 2 litres with only vague damage the next day, so I assume it wasn't that strong. And before anybody says anything, 2 L of the normal stuff would leave me close to death. keep to the Fen Causeway
Bouquet, impression and length are parameters we judge in a lot more than wine - friends for instance.
Alcoholic inebriation is essentially a spin-off of the porocess. You can't be me, I'm taken
"Have some Beaujolais nouveau!" "Thanks, but I'd rather drink some wine!"
Beaujolais nouveau is an awful stuff. The vinification process is accelerated to produce a beverage that can be sold within a few weeks, thus generating cash much sooner than if you wait for real wine to develop. The biggest consumers of Beaujolais Nouveau are Japan and the US...
Beaujolais (the normal one) is highly overrated except for some good ones like Moulin-à-Vent or Morgon (we had a nice Morgon the first time Helen came to Lyon), but you have to know the good proroducers.
By the way, my mother's family came fron Romanèche-Thorins. "Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
The biggest consumers of Beaujolais Nouveau are Japan and the US...
Beaujolais Nouveau on 11/27 - beyond polemics Postby AlexR on Wed Nov 19, 2008 Of course, there are trends in wine just like everything else. Even among the more staid, bourgeois wine drinkers among us ;-). A recent trend is to knock Beaujolais. Indeed, the press has not been kind to the appellation and sales have suffered. Saying you like Beaujolais these days is like admitting to having seduced the babysitter. However, let me speak up in defense of Beaujolais on 2 counts: - Beaujolais Nouveau is simply fun. It's cheap and cheerful, and is one of the minor events on the calendar I look forward too. To a certain extent, quality is not the paramount attraction at this price point. It's the ritual of the thing. Many of the labels look good, and some of the better known shippers/producers put out a very honest product. So, color me a hopeless romantic, or fool, or babysitter seducer, but I always buy Beaujolais Nouveau at least once in November - not expecting a Clos de Vougeot, but a fun, fruity, little wine. ... Let us take Beaujolais Nouveau for what it is (and what it costs), and have a nuanced judgement of the appellation as a whole. Best regards, Alex R. Postby David M. Bueker on Wed Nov 19, 2008 AlexR: "Saying you like Beaujolais these days is like admitting to having seduced the babysitter." Huh? Where's the problem? :twisted: Anyway, this is a strange forum to post a defense of Beaujolais. There's a ton of Beaujolais fans here. As for Nouveau (and isn't the release date 11/20), I really consider it a different beast. It's a party. To consider Nouveau indicative of the region would be the rough equivalent of considering fermenting samples of Entre-deux-mers to be the flagship of Bordeaux. http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20148&start=0
Beaujolais Nouveau on 11/27 - beyond polemics
Postby AlexR on Wed Nov 19, 2008
Of course, there are trends in wine just like everything else.
Even among the more staid, bourgeois wine drinkers among us ;-).
A recent trend is to knock Beaujolais.
Indeed, the press has not been kind to the appellation and sales have suffered.
Saying you like Beaujolais these days is like admitting to having seduced the babysitter.
However, let me speak up in defense of Beaujolais on 2 counts:
- Beaujolais Nouveau is simply fun. It's cheap and cheerful, and is one of the minor events on the calendar I look forward too. To a certain extent, quality is not the paramount attraction at this price point. It's the ritual of the thing. Many of the labels look good, and some of the better known shippers/producers put out a very honest product. So, color me a hopeless romantic, or fool, or babysitter seducer, but I always buy Beaujolais Nouveau at least once in November - not expecting a Clos de Vougeot, but a fun, fruity, little wine.
... Let us take Beaujolais Nouveau for what it is (and what it costs), and have a nuanced judgement of the appellation as a whole.
Best regards, Alex R.
Postby David M. Bueker on Wed Nov 19, 2008
AlexR: "Saying you like Beaujolais these days is like admitting to having seduced the babysitter."
Huh? Where's the problem? :twisted:
Anyway, this is a strange forum to post a defense of Beaujolais. There's a ton of Beaujolais fans here.
As for Nouveau (and isn't the release date 11/20), I really consider it a different beast. It's a party. To consider Nouveau indicative of the region would be the rough equivalent of considering fermenting samples of Entre-deux-mers to be the flagship of Bordeaux.
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20148&start=0
I am listening to Finnish electric kantele band Avertere at the moment - not as bad as it sounds.... I was just remodelling their press releases... You can't be me, I'm taken
