Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!
Sorry I
didn’t get to this until now. I have been too busy imbibing Beaujolais Nouveau.
It is the third Thursday in November after all.
For the
sober and uninformed or, ahem, boorish reader, the uncorking of this young wine
at the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday of November has grown from a
local phenomenon in the bars and bistros around Beaujolais and Lyon to a
world-wide celebration. Nouveau is the first wine from the past year’s harvest
and is meant to be drunk young, before the next year’s harvest, and meant to be
drunk while better Beaujolais take their good old time aging. Picked quickly,
rapidly fermented and speedily bottled, Beaujolais Nouveau has bided its time
until TODAY!
(French law since the 50’s states that this is
the earliest the Nouveau can be released. The regulation used to have November
15 as the date, but was changed to this third Thursday to allow the partying to
readily flow into a weekend.)
Yes, the uncorking of this young fruity wine on
this date is cause for parties and fireworks in France and with the frivolous
celebration now extending beyond France the “race” to export the Nouveau has
led to gimmicky deliveries via the Concorde, by elephant or a hot air balloon. Yes, it
may be all a marketing ploy, but Nouveau is best served slightly chilled, and
gulped rather than critiqued; which lends itself to a festive air and a gathering of friends whether
self-proclaimed oenophiles or not.
