Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive'!

AT ONE MINUTE PAST MIDNIGHT on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Roman�che-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 arriv�! "The New Beaujolais has arrived!"

So what is Beaujolais, and what's the big deal? As you may have guessed, Beaujolais is a varietal of red wine. It's very light and fruity and hallmarked by the speed with which is is picked, fermented, bottled, and drunk. Made from the Gamay grape, Beaujolais is harvested in September and released with much fanfare on the third Thursday of November. Wow, that's fast! What's more, Nouveau should be enjoyed within the first few months of release. If you've still got a bottle sitting around in April, well, don't expect much.

This page has a cute overview of the Beaujolais Nouveau tradition. Why Beaujolais Nouveau? Beaujolais is probably the most accessible red wine for the beginning afficianado. It's light and fruity and doesn't require a lot from you to enjoy. You don't need any sophisticated vocabulary to describe the way it tastes (although if you want to look intelligent you can always say, "I love the lack of tannins"). It's perfect for enjoying with food or on its own. And I'll just let the above article speak for itself:

Apart from the fanfare, what makes Beaujolais Nouveau so popular? And especially in the U.S. where consumption of red wine is less than 30%? Simply put, Beaujolais Nouveau is as about as close to white wine as a red wine can get. Due to the way it is made�the must is pressed early after only three days�the phenolic compounds, in particular the astringent tannins, normally found in red wines, isn't there, leaving an easy to drink, fruity wine. This, coupled with the fact that it tastes best when chilled, makes for a festive wine to be gulped rather than sipped, enjoyed in high spirits rather than critiqued. As a side note, it makes a great transitional wine for anyone wanting to move from white to red wines.

I have a special attachment to Beaujolais Nouveau as it's the first wine I enjoyed as a child teenager adult of drinking age. I highly recommend it for anyone, particularly for people who think they don't like wine (or don't in particular like red wine).

Georges DuBeouf is the most famous producer and brings out some lovely wines.

But where am I going with this? Like many around the world, my parents threw a Beaujolais Nouveau celebration on Thursday night. It was a wonderful little get-together. Everyone brought a lite appetizer (we brought apples with a caramel dipping sauce) and the main dinner was pizza. Unfortunately, Dad had what we call an NSS moment (NSS= Not So Smart--a term originating with the dogs but also applicable as a gentle description for when someone kinda sorta messes things up). He heated the oven for the pizza and threw pizza #1 in. And waited, and waited, and then finally served it. I noticed a certain sogginess of the crust but who am I to talk? And then we learned that someone had turned off the oven and the pizza had "baked" in a cooling oven. So he fixed it for the next pizza. We knew the problem had been solved when we heard the smoke detector go off. Fortunately the pizza was salvageable, but it was pretty funny.