Remember-rememeber 18th of November, time for some Beaujolais Nouveau

 I had planned many excuses why I did not really write anything in my blog once it was set up.

The most valid one would be that I spent almost all summer and part of the autumn preparing for WSET Level 3 wine exam that is now done. So from now on, the only excuse (not very valid one) would be that I am awfully lazy.

But no more excuses!

Today is the official release date of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine that comes from the Beaujolais region in France. This is the first wine of this year’s harvest and therefore released very shortly after fermentation. It is usually fruity, light with low tannin and has red fruit flavors, made out of Gamay grape. As it has barely finished fermentation, there’s no need to look for great complexity nor has it much ageing potential.

I heard about this wine first time when I lived in Angers (France) in 2015. I was also told immediately that it is a low quality wine. Why on earth should I buy it then? Why should anyone buy it?

I do not remember if I had it six years ago but I definitely bought a bottle last year. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is fresh and simple easy drinking wine but not every wine needs to be complicated.

Official release date is always third Thursday of November and that period is celebrated also in Luxembourg. Most if not all grocery stores have their BN counter with special prices. I went to Auchan today to get me some and discovered that actually the campaign started already on 16^th of November so it seems that the date can be somewhat flexible. In the city, there are big posters announcing special menus in restaurants around this wine.

I guess what makes it so appealing to people are not so much it’s aromas and flavors than the fact that this is the very first French wine of the year.

Beaujolais Nouveau can be celebrated but unfortunately, this wine has also given a certain reputation to the whole region. BN is not the only wine that comes from Beaujolais! I must be honest though that wines from that region have not been my first pick either but my attitude changed a lot this September. Me and my boyfriend did a trip to Dijon and Lyon. During our stay, we tried many Beaujolais wines. We also visited one small vineyard/cellar and did a tasting there. I was very much impressed by the quality of certain village vines. My favourite – full-bodied red from Morgon that we had in one restaurant in Lyon with upside down blood sausage-apple pie.

A side note: BN can only come from either the whole region (labelled as Beaujolais) or from the village level (Beaujolais-Villages). It can not have the name of the specific village on it's label. This is reserved for better quality wines. 

I did not plan to buy the wine already today. We had two weeks of wine drinking in Sicily so I had a plan to detox a bit. Yesterday evening, my landlady told me: “So Anna, you wine specialist, Beaujolais-Nouveau comes out tomorrow”. Well, I need to maintain my reputation so to do everything right, I went and got myself a bottle.

Enough of the talk now, let’s taste J

The bottle is the reason I got exactly this one. There are many pretty and colourful labels, this is one I liked the most.

It’s recommended to serve BN chilled so I also kept it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

It has a pale purple colour and medium aroma intensity. Aromas are very distinguishable. I pick up raspberry yogurt, red cherry, cinnamon and bubblegum notes. These are typical aromas (with an exception of yogurt) of wines that have gone through carbonic maceration. In this process, vats are filled with grapes and CO₂ is added to create an oxygen free environment. The grape juice starts fermenting inside the grapes, creating an alcohol. When the alcohol level reached 2%, grape skins split and juice runs out. Grapes are then pressed and fermentation continues off skins. This method produces fruity and soft wines with low tannin.

On the palate, this wine is light and simple. It has medium- tannin and medium acidity. Alcohol is also medium – 12,5%. The flavors are towards sour red fruit. It reminds me my mom’s raspberry wine when it had just finished fermentation and she wanted to add more sugar as it was too dry for her taste.

According to Vivino, the score is 3.5. I will go with 3 as I remember that the wine I had last year was better (or maybe my bar has risen). It does taste more like fermenting juice than wine. I am truly happy that I don’t judge the whole region according to this type of wine.

But I will not also judge BN according to this specific wine. I will try some more and I will find something better. I am sure that Louis Jadot’ almost 9 euro bottle won’t disappoint J