Le Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé!
Every year, Beaujolais Nouveau Day celebrates the release of France’s most popular vin de primeur (early wine). Laid down in French law, it's always the third Thursday in November.
In 2024 Beaujolais Nouveau Day will be celebrated on Thursday 21st November.
We're working with Cecile and Alain Dardanelli at Domaine bel Avenir again this year and we're looking forward to tasting the first and fastest wine of the seaon.
I recently asked Cecile whether 2024 looks great, like 1964, or disappointing like 2014, 2004, 1994, 1984, and 1974. She explained, “so much bad weather from January to the end of July gave us quite a fright.”
Thankfully most of their vines are in the hilly crus of northern Beaujolais, “our vineyard is well structured. Alain had no problem spraying the vines with his tractor, as we have paths every ten rows. He did not need to go inside the rows which were soaked. At some estates tractors are abandoned like plants in the vineyards!“
As a result, and unlike other winegrowers in our area and elsewhere, we have no disease at all. The bunches are very healthy – though small – and we can already taste this lovely subtle nectar. You really get the impression of biting into a cherry. The skin is quite thick and the juice is dense.
“We started sampling on 5th September to determine the order in which we’ll pick the vines. This is very important so that we can vinify the wines in the best possible way and give them what we really want – freshness, fruitiness, colour and alcohol.”
In a difficult year it is the small decisions made by the vignerons which determine the success, or otherwise, of the vintage.
What is noveau?
It is the fastest and most exciting wine of the year.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a light and fruity red wine. It can only be made from Gamay grapes, all of which have been grown and harvested by around 400 small farmers in the Beaujolais region. It’s bottled and sold within just 6-8 weeks of the grapes being picked.
The 'must' (freshly picked grape juice) is pressed after only three days, so the astringent tannins usually found in red wine are hardly noticeable. As a result nouveau wine is a little like a white wine in style, despite its purple-pink colour.
Expect the bright, fresh, red-fruit flavours of strawberry, raspberry and cherry, plus notes of banana, grape and pear drop which bring to mind the childhood flavours of bubble-gum.
How to serve
Slightly chilled at about 13°c - and generously. It doesn’t improve with age, so enjoy the moment.
Since the 1800s, Beaujolais growers have made and drunk early wines to celebrate the end of the harvest. Now Beaujolais Nouveau is drunk all over the world, especially in the US, UK, and Japan (where they're mad about it).
The 1960s saw the start of the obsession with getting the new vintage before anyone else. At first this was a sprint by vignerons to get their wines to the fashionable bistros of Paris. In the 1970s wine critic Alan Hall of the Sunday Times threw down the gauntlet to "bring back the Beaujolais" - starting a fashion to race bottles across the Channel (a tradition which continues to this day). The race became so popular it spread to scores of locations across the world. It’s now a quirky international event.
Serious or frivolous?
It is definitely in the fun category: the wine is inexpensive and easy-drinking, with the joy coming from taking part in an international wine moment each year.
Even the labels are lively and part of the experience is finding out how the new bottles will be dressed.
Strictly for drinking?
No, you can cook with it too - traditionally in coq au vin or to poach pears.
Poached PearsBuy Beaujolais Nouveau - but be quick, when it's gone, it's gone!
