This article treats one of the world's most successful marketing campaigns ? the French red wine that arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, Beaujolais Nouveau. At one minute past midnight on the third Thursday in November, this wine is released for sale. Talk about market share, in the next 24 hours over one million cases will be sold. During the coming year, consumers all over the world will buy more than 65 million bottles. There will be about 4 million bottles exported to the United States, and 7 million to Japan and to Germany. About seven hundred thousand bottles will be exported to Italy, which makes a similar wine, Vino Novello, reviewed in our article I Love Italian Wine and Food ? Vino Novello (New Wine).
What is exactly is new wine, whether Beaujolais Nouveau, Vino Novello, or some other, similar product? New wine is the first of the harvest, released in early November. The exact date depends on the country. New wines are produced by a special method, carbonic maceration, in which whole grapes ferment in stainless steel tanks, often reaching a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Centigrade (77 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). This process lasts for about 5 to 20 days, and may be followed by crushing the grapes, which then undergo traditional fermentation for a few days. The exact procedure varies from one winemaker to another, but the ensuing wine is virtually tannin free. The lack of tannins implies a short shelf life. While you don't have to drink the wine immediately, most people finish the season by Easter. Actually, in the best vintages Beaujolais Nouveau can last until the following year's crop. In theory you could drink Beaujolais Nouveau all year long. Take my advice, don't.
New wines are usually colored bright red or violet. They tend to be fruity, tasting of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, banana, and freshly squeezed grapes, depending on the grape variety used, the production method, and the area in which the grapes are grown. Detractors talk about bubble gum, lollipops, nail polish, and jello. Many feel that new wine tastes of grape juice with alcohol. One thing is certain, if you don't like a given new wine, don't store it away to try it again in two years. It won't improve with time.
Let me present a few tidbits of information before reviewing one of the best Beaujolais Nouveau wines. This wine comes from Beaujolais region of southeastern France and is made from the Gamay grape, which was kicked out of the world-famous, neighboring Burgundy region in 1395. By law, all the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand. Champagne is the only other region of France that forbids mechanical harvesting. While Beaujolais Nouveau was first regulated in 1938, it dates back to ancient times when a somewhat similar wine was produced for slaves. History does not record their reaction. Let's take a look at mine.
Wine Reviewed Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2006 12.5% about $13
I bought this bottle the day after the release of the 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau (November 16, 2006). It was the most expensive, and presumably the best, of all the new wines available.
Beaujolais Villages Nouveau comes from the Gamay grape variety grown in the Beaujolais region of southwestern France. Gamay grapes contain virtually no tannins, and so many white wine lovers feel at home with them. The wine is considered quite fruity and easy to drink. Unlike some of its inferior competitors, it did not smell of nail polish.
My first pairing of this wine involved chicken in a honey, garlic, and soy sauce. The wine was not very flavorful, but during the course of the meal its flavors increased somewhat. Unfortunately the dominant flavor was bubble gum, but there was a light taste of black fruit.
The next meal involved hamburgers accompanied by potatoes, Moroccan style carrots (spicy, the major spice was cumin), and a spicy tomato and red pepper salsa. The spicy food brought out the wine's fruitiness. In particular, the wine's acidity was a good match for the salsa's acidity.
Then I tried this wine with kube, or kibbe, a Middle-Eastern specialty, balls of ground rice filled with ground meat. They were cooked overnight with potatoes in a somewhat spicy sauce. The wine still smelled of bubble gum after a few days. It didn't add much to the meal, but did get a bit more expressive as it warmed up. (By the way, it was not overchilled.) It went rather well with fresh pineapple, but didn't add anything to the other dessert of thin almond and pistachio biscuits.
I didn't have any French cheeses to accompany the wine, so I had to settle for Italian cheeses. Asiago cheese is nutty-flavored, fairly strong cheese from northeastern Italy. In its presence the wine was moderately fruity. This Beaujolais Nouveau was pleasant but a bit thin in the face of a somewhat overripe Pecorino Toscano from the Tuscany region of Italy.
Final verdict. For many years I have not been a fan of new wines. I taste them every year, and am always willing to change my mind. This overpriced Beaujolais Nouveau gave me no reason to budge an inch. As we said every September (or earlier) when our baseball team was eliminated from the pennant race, wait ?til next year.
This article will launch our new series, I Love French Wine and Food. You may be aware that we have written over two dozen articles in our first series, I Love Italian Wine and Food. This series will continue this labor of love, but for French wine and food. While this article launches the French series, it is actually not our very first one describing French wine and food. We posted the article I Love French Wine and Food ? Beaujolais Nouveau in time for the opening of the Beaujolais Nouveau season in mid-November. We will soon be taking a look at other wines in the Beaujolais region of southeastern France.
Let's start with a few statistics for the French wine industry as a whole. France constantly fights with Italy for the title of the world's biggest wine producer. As in many other European countries, the French are drinking less wine, but better wine. France has more than 2 million acres devoted to grape vines, and produces more than 600 million cases of wine each year. France exports over one third of its wine production all over the world including a considerable portion to the United States.
We are going to look at eleven wine French regions: in alphabetical order they are Alsace, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Jura and Savoie, Languedoc-Rousillon, the Loire Valley, Provence and Corisca, the Rh'ne Valley, and Southwest France. Each article will discuss the region and its distinctiveness. We'll talk about the wines and the foods that characterize the region. We will try to have at least two articles per region. All articles in the series (except for this one) will give our unbiased tasting report on a wine. We will taste the wine with food, including several main courses and at least one imported cheese usually French, and sometimes from elsewhere in Europe. In our Italian series the wines we tasted cost between $6 and $38, but were mostly in the range from $10 to $20. We expect to pay more for French wines but intend to work in approximately the same price range. Don't expect a report on three fine French Champagnes. We are going to be flexible in our wine tasting. But there are two rules that we follow. First rule, all wines that we taste and review have been purchased at the full retail price. Second rule, if we are unhappy with a wine we will let you know. If you followed our previous series, you know that we weren't always happy with the Italian wines we tasted and I've got the funny feeling that the same thing will happen with French wines.
Now back to the subject of French wines.
Wine Classification. France has legally defined four national wine classifications that presumably help the consumer make a selection when faced dozens of unfamiliar choices. Some regions such as Bordeaux define additional classifications that will be discussed in the appropriate articles. The French national classifications were first introduced in 1935 with the goal of regulating wine production in given geographical areas and helping the areas to develop their own specific identity. Starting with the lowest level, these four classifications are vin de table, vin de pays, Vin D'limit? de Qualit? Sup?rieure-VDQS, and Appellation d'Origine Contr'l?-AOC.
Vin de table may be translated as table wine. Table wine production has been severely reduced during the last decade or so. At present, only about 12% of French wine carries this plebian classification. Almost all table wines are red. Table wines follow few rules, except that their labels may not indicate the grape varieties used, the vintage year, or the specific area that the grapes came from. You won't find many French table wines for sale in North America.
Vin de pays may be translated as country wine. This category was first established in 1968. At present, the annual production of vin de pays is more than twice that of vin de table. The label must indicate the location where the grapes were harvested. Once in a while an exceptional vin de pays is produced, which should not be surprising when you consider that almost one French wine bottle in three carries this classification. Let's not worry about vin de pays's specific rules which can be complicated. Sooner or later, we will probably review such wines. With a little luck we'll find a bargain or two.
Vin D'limit? de Qualit? Sup?rieure - VDQS may be translated as superior wine. This is a very tiny classification, comprising only about 30 French wines. You may think of it as a waiting room for AOC, the highest French wine classification. Of course, not every VDQS wine gets promoted. We are not going to make a specific effort to find VDQS wines.
Appellation d'Origine Contr'l? ? AOC may be translated as controlled-origin appellation. Approximately half of all French wine is accorded this top-level classification. I don't know about you, but such a high percentage makes me wonder how helpful this classification can be. To achieve the AOC classification, a wine must meet laws defining the grape varieties used, the grape growing methods and wine-making methods employed, the maximum yield produced, and the minimum alcoholic content. In addition, the wine must pass a taste test. When you consider that only about 3% of wine tasted fails the taste test, don't be surprised that the AOC classification is far from a guarantee of quality. Most of the wines that we will be tasting carry the AOC classification.
Levi Reiss has sinced written about articles on various topics from Touring Italy, Travel and Leisure and Food and Drink. Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language communit. Levi Reiss's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.