Beaujolais Nouveau is not a very exciting wine and as a wine is not meant to be taken too seriously. It is a light and fruity drink and it’s an acquired taste. All the same, the French celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau Day with the traditional fervor that is sort of inexplicable to someone who does not live there.

By French law, the wine cannot be sold until midnight on the third Thursday in November. The release of this wine is meant to celebrate the fall harvest and if you are in Paris, don’t hesitate to stop into a cafe on Thursday, November 18th. It definitely won’t be the best wine you will ever drink, but the experience of sharing it with a bar full of Parisians is not to be missed.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a light and fruity red wine made from purple Gamay grapes that are grown in the Beaujolais region of France. This wine region lies a few hundred miles south of Paris, within Burgundy and between Mâcon and Lyon. The region itself measures thirty-four miles long from north to south, and about nine miles wide between the two cities. There are approximately 4,000 growers in Beaujolais producing grapes on their small vineyards. In this region, and for the wine to be considered true Beaujolais Nouveau, the grapes must be picked by hand. They are then put through a process called carbonic maceration, where the grapes are not crushed, but fermented whole in a carbon dioxide rich environment. The wine is then bottled, with the whole process taking less than six weeks.

Unlike most red wines which usually get better as they age, or need to age to a certain point in order to be considered fine wine, Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be consumed as a young wine, immediately (within weeks) after bottling. Most vintages have a shelf life of only a few months, with the rare, occasional vintage lasting until the next harvest.

Salut!

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