Last night, I dropped in on what was probably one of Vermont’s only Beaujolais Nouveau release parties. And though I planned to write about some raw-milk cheeses today, a bee has landed in my bonnet: The snark that many wine industry people (writers, retailers, distributors, etc.) reserve for this wine.
If you’re unfamiliar with BN, it’s a very young, Gamay-based wine that ferments only for only a few weeks before it’s bottled. Released each year on the third Thursday of November, it’s the first taste of the year’s harvest; bars and wine shops in Paris and elsewhere will pop open bottles at midnight to jumpstart a wine-centric party. Yesterday, I received a late invite to a release party that the New England Culinary Institute was throwing at Chef’s Table In Montpelier.
Balloons marked the entrance and, on the inside, NECI students (some clad in berets) roamed the cozy red rooms pouring Joseph Drouhin’s Beaujolais Nouveau and serving up French morsels such as coq au vin. About two dozen people sipped and discussed the wine — some had never tried Beaujolais of any stripe before. They chatted about everything from its flavors (lots of red fruit, of course, but grippier than in past years), to the year’s weather in France, to beer (this being Vermont). It was a mellow, low-key celebration of wine and food and fall and all things French.
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Too bad for wine snobs. They miss all the fun, and want to take it away from everybody else. BN is good stuff. It is affordable and as I read once, “highly gulpable” wine. I look forward to its annual release, and make a point of being at my favorite store early on the morning of the third Thursday each November.
Begin to learn a little about wine by trying the BN, or reading about it. It will not harm you, and it just might make you a more interesting person.