Beaujolais Nouveau is a tradition--a favorite of harvest time, it's the ultimate in freshness: made to be consumed within a few months of harvest.
Beaujolais Nouveau is the festival wine the entire world celebrates with for a few brief months each year. Not a wine to be fussed over or thought about so much as a wine to be consumed! This inky purple liquid is the product of a small French wine region which specializes in red wine, Beaujolais.
Geographically, the Beaujolais is attached to one of France's best known wine regions, Burgundy. Although Burgundy is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir country, the Beaujolais uses a different grape altogether, the Gamay. The Beaujolais runs south from the Macon (think Pouilly-Fuisse) to the city of Lyons. Just south of Lyons begins the Rhone Valley.
The Beaujolais region is roughly 30km. (18 mi.) wide by 50km. (30 mi.) long, and can be divided basically in half, the north and the south, both in terms of geography and of quality. The northern half is made up of primarily granite based soil, and Gamay grapes grown here produce all of the best, longest lived wines. The southern half, which is flatter, is composed of soils which are richer, with clay. Gamay grown in these soils produce wines which are lighter, and meant for early consumption.
The name Beaujolais is derived from one of the small villages in the region, Beaujeu.
An unbelievable 98% of the region is planted with the Gamay, and vine density is one of the highest in the world, at 9,000 to 13,000 vines per hectare. This is approximately 4,000 to 5,000 vines per acre, compared to many New World vineyards at 1,080. This may not seem too important, but in the case of Beaujolais Nouveau it is, since the wine can only be made from whole clusters of grapes, and must be hand-harvested. In some vintages, between 30% and 50% of the entire region’s Gamay is used for Nouveau.
HOW BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU IS MADE
Those hand picked whole clusters of Gamay grapes are gently transported to the winery, and put into either cement or stainless steel vats, and then sealed. The weight of the top grapes crushes the bottom 20%-30% of the grapes and fermentation begins. Carbon Dioxide and heat from fermentation rises, and surrounds the upper grapes. This sparks a fermentation inside of the individual whole grapes, which then burst and feed the process. This intracellular fermentation is responsible for the banana and pear drop aromas and flavors of the wine. This fermentation lasts for about 4 days, the juice is run off, and the remainder is pressed for more juice, which is added back into the original run-off. The wine finishes fermenting, is allowed to settle out, and is filtered and bottled.
This entire process takes less than 2 months, and the wine is rushed off around the world to be ready for sale on the third Thursday in November, when the Nouveau celebration begins!
France's gulpable BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU, best served slightly chilled and excellent with turkey and your Thanksgiving feast. Best within 6 months of harvest.