Beaujolais Nouveau

Yesterday, the third Thursday of November, was one of our favorite days of the year: Beaujolais Nouveau Day!

What is this, you ask? It’s a celebration of this year’s grape harvest and the wines to come! Starting back in the 1800s, winemakers in Beaujolais (just south of Burgundy) would celebrate the end of harvest by drinking young wine just fermented. The joke goes that this wine ages on the seat of your car as you drive home!

Beaujolais grows a grape called Gamay. The Gamay grapes are harvested by hand, and they’re then fermented by a process called carbonic maceration. This process, and the very young, unaged nature of this wine, gives you a bright, light, fruity wine. Beaujolais Nouveau often has aromas of bubblegum, bananas, and candy.

This is not a thinking wine, it’s a simple wine. But take it for what it is, and it’s just FUN. It’s typically enjoyed by people who aren’t big wine drinkers.

We tasted two bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau last night: Georges Duboeuf and Pardon & Fils

If you’re in the market for a Beaujolais Nouveau, we recommend the Georges Duboeuf. This fun wine smells like cotton candy, banana runts or banana chips, and bubblegum. It tastes like raspberry candy. It’s a party in a bottle!

This is a great wine to take to Thanksgiving and drink with turkey. Again, this is not a thinking wine, it’s a drinking wine. If you’re a wine connoisseur, just take it for what it is and have fun with it!

Just a heads up, though: this isn’t a wine you should keep buying past, say, May. At that point, you need to just wait until the next release next November.

This wine sells for $14.99 at Jacob Liquor.

Happy Thanksgiving!