Beaujoulais Nouveu 2016 Has Arrived...
Beaujoulais Nouveu is a French wine that is released annually celebrating the year's harvest! And the 2016 harvest is being released today!
In the United States November is all about celebrating Thanksgiving, but across the world wine lovers are waiting for the 3rd Thursday of November, not the 4th, because they want to celebrate the release of Beaujoulais Nouveu.
Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!!! Beaujolais Nouveau releases November 17, 2016.
France releases Beaujoulais Nouveu once a year and this a wine that amazes people not because of its complexity, it doesn’t appeal to the wine snobs, but for its fast production. The purpose of this release is to celebrate the harvest and give everyone a sneak preview of the current vintage. This wine literally goes from vine, to bottle, to table in the matter of weeks. With such a fast-paced production the aging process is skipped and wine lovers all over the world get to drink fresh young wine.
Why it is so Unique
The style of Beaujoulais Nouveu is more like a grape juice and it doesn’t overwhelm the palate. Its fast paced production doesn’t give the grapes much time to have contact with the skins, which when it does this grape produces a much fuller flavor. Flavors associated with this wine are banana, grape, strawberry, and fig. This wine is meant to be drunk young…it doesn’t even taste good after a couple months. That is what makes this wine so unique, it is very versatile and pairs well with an assortment of food. Its counterpart Beaujoulais which is made from the Gamay grape is recognized for its strawberry flavors. So, even when this grape does go through the aging process it is still a very light wine.
Celebrate Thanksgiving with Nouveau
The beauty of this wonderfully young wine it is the perfect pairing to the American Thanksgiving Day Feast. There have been speculations questioning if this was done on purpose or if it is just a divine coincidence. Regardless of the real reason, we are all happy to partake in the celebration of the harvest.
How France Celebrates Beaujolais Nouveau
There are over 100 different kinds of celebrations and festivals held throughout France in honor of this day. The most famous is Les Samentelles, which is a 5-day festival with live music, dancing, and a contest where the participants have to drink their weight in Beaujolais. French people race to get to their first bottle of the vintage. In the 1970’s this started to gain media coverage and national attention. Across the world everyone has their own way to celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau.
Japan Really Knows How to Celebrate
Some of the major producers and exporters of Beaujolais Nouveau
5 Beaujolais Nouveau Facts to Spice up the conversation at Thanksgiving
- Beaujolais Nouveau started as a race to see who could deliver the new harvest’s wine to Paris first.
- In the early 1960’s some of the local ‘vignerons’, like Georges Duboeuf, saw potential in the easy-going tipple and decided to promote the wine with a contest to see who could get the first bottle to Paris.
- There are over 35 million bottles produced and distributed to 110 countries.
- Japan is the world’s largest importer of Beaujolais Nouveau. Germany is second. The United States is third.
- The entire process takes only 6 weeks!