Seconds after the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday of each November, men wearing berets begin driving trucks filled with heavy crates through darkened streets of France.
Their mission: To deliver more than a million cases of their cargo to all parts of the globe.
Welcome to one of the most anticipated – and absurd – events on the wine lover’s calendar. I’m talking, of course, about the annual release of Beaujolais Nouveau, or new harvest wine.
Within weeks tens of millions of bottles will be drunk in what is essentially the planet’s biggest excuse for a party.
Why Beaujolais Nouveau managed to become the world’s most popular wine (no kidding) is, well, weird.
Made fast and to be consumed quickly, Beaujolais Nouveau is produced on a puny patch of land near Lyon, in France. It’s made from gamay, a grape once dissed as scarcely third-rate. And this wine has barely spent enough time fermenting to be called wine.
And yet… people from Tampa to Timbuktu go bonkers for Beaujolais Nouveau.
Fanfare and hype certainly play a part in its popularity. So does the fact that Beaujolais Nouveau is about as close to white wine as a red wine can get. Its youth also means it tends to taste better when chilled. A wine to be gulped rather than sipped. In other words, an excuse for a party.
Still, as rationale for revelry goes, it’s a perfectly fine one.
Among the leading producers – and promoters – of Beaujolais Nouveau is Georges Duboeuf. Even if you haven’t tried his wines, chances are you’ve seen his flowery labeled bottles in wine shops and grocery stores. His wines are good examples of Beaujolais Nouveau, which to me tend to taste fruity and fresh, but curiously bubble gummy.
I scored bottles of 2009 Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau and Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau a few days before they were officially released. Sh.
I was pleasantly surprised. Both were better than in past years. The Beaujolais Nouveau still smacked of Bazooza Joe and has a finish that had me grasping for synonyms for aluminum foil.
Far better was the Beaujolais-Village Nouveau, a kind of more precocious twin, offering tastes of bright cherry and a nice, smooth finish. Only a buck more per bottle than its ten-spot sibling, but far tastier. Prices for most Beaujolais Nouveau runs anywhere from $10 to $14 per bottle.
Of course, for about the same price you could have a cru Beaujolais, which shares little more than a name with its easy-drinking cousin. Made from the region’s best gamay noir grapes, cru Beaujolais can vary widely in style in taste. But for quality, they leave Beaujolais Nouveau in the dust.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.