With many apologies to the French language for missing acents and dodgy spellings and potentially missing agreements. It is the third Thursday in November however and as such the formal date for release of many of the en primeur or nouveau wines. Some do come out earlier - we had primeurs in a restaurant in Narbonne in late October last year, but today is the day for Beaujolais and for Anjou Gamay.
I gather there are still parties for the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau but a lot of the marketing hype and fun seems to have gone out of it and wine snobs are sniffy about the quality of a wine that has been maturing for a few weeks at best. I think they are missing the point with it. November is a pretty grim month quite often, with storms, flooding, short days, cold nights, so something a bit fun is nice to change the mood.
The wines are young and therefore bear a very strong resemblance to grape juice with a kick, but you aren't drinking them for deep tanins and a complex nose, you are drinking these wines for a giggle. If you want your tanins and complex nose and oak top notes and all the rest, pay a few pounds or euros more for something that is older and don't be offended by a young wine.
One thing we have found with Beaujolais Nouveau Villages, is that if you keep them for 18 months, you end up with quite a nice complex wine, although one with no more keeping qualities.
So this is our selection from Super U, and we will work our way through them, and if any are any good, we will probably invest in a couple more bottles, to keep us giggling until Christmas!
Your description of November is exactly what we are experiencing here in the Scottish Borders - very wet, very windy and flooding!! Wine to make me giggle sounds like a very good idea!!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | 19 November 2009 at 06:39 PM