Beaujolais Nouveau Is Really Just A Young Wine

Like it or hate it, beaujolais nouveau season is festival time in terms of wine drinking. Since its inception back in 1951 when the term was first coined and the inauguration date was set for the first ever release on the 15th of November, this young wine's yearly sale launch has gathered more and more devotees.

serve at 52-55 degrees F

it's an affordable delightful wine

the third Thursday in November is when the new vintage is released every year

released at about six weeks old, young, grapey and easy to drink

But it has to be said that beaujolais nouveau is most definitely a quaffing wine rather than a meal accompaniment. For most self professed wine connoisseurs, Nouveau is to be avoided like the plague.

But it is in effect, testament to some pretty remarkable marketing that it has become the phenomenon that it is today, not just in France and the rest of continental Europe, but across the whole world. The most popular market is Germany with Japan and the USA following up closely behind.

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It is really just a young wine, (the word nouveau being the word for "new" in French), that comes from the celebrated Beaujolais wine region of France. It is vibrant but somewhat "thin" red wine that is made from the Gamay grape.

Enthusiasts have likened its taste on the palate to reminiscences of banana, fig, and pear and it is recommended that it is best serve when slightly chilled at about 13 degrees Celsius (about 55 degree Fahrenheit).

The success of this wine as a brand is in the main due to a French gentlemen called George Duboeuf. Duboeuf was the founder of "Les Vins George Duboeuf", one of the biggestst and most respected wine merchants in France. He seized upon the opportunity of promoting a wine that could be sold just 6 to 8 weeks after being fermented. When I first started drinking red...it was this very wine I favored.

So successful have the ensuing yearly marketing campaigns been, that BN actually accounts for nearly half of the wine sold from the Beaujolais region.

This is actually a remarkable achievement, especially when you realize that it competes against the renowned "Villages" Beaujolais wines, such as Fleurie, Brouilly and Moulin a Vent.

This wine was a favorite of mine when I first switched from white to the reds, it is a very light, easy sipping wine . I have since gone on to try the big bold cab-savs and shiraz's and I do now prefer a fuller bodied wine, but a beaujolais I will always be fond of forever. It was my comfort beverage of choice during my first year of reds! :-)

Beaujolais Day, or beaujolais nouveau Day is it has become known, is usually the third Thursday in November and it signals the start of the race amongst the vineyards and wine agents to be the first to get their products into the shops and out on general sale.

It is actually a significant boost in cash flow for those vineyards that ferment the Nouveau, whose grapes are still handpicked as tradition demands.

In the United States, it is marketed heavily (and with much success), as a wine to go with Thanksgiving dinner. Elsewhere around the world, the focus is on BN day itself, when it is the aim of devotees to be among the first to sample the new vintage.

It is very much a thing for young people and in the city of London, England, young professionals flock to the bars and pubs in something of a festival mood to quaff their share of the years new wine.

When all is said and done, the phenomenon for this wine continues to grow, and each year it brings new people into the fold, all eager for their first taste of this pinkish red liquid. One thing is for sure; it's not the taste that attracts people to joining the beaujolais nouveau "club", it's the annual event itself, born and nurtured by a true masterstroke of marketing.

Cheers

red wine

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