Good Morning!

Today is a big day in the wine world…It’s Beaujolais Nouveau Day! What the heck is that? Beaujolais is a wine from France made from the Gamay grape and the word Nouveau is french and it means “new” loosely translated to English. So it is new wine made of Gamay grapes day! There is also a regular Beaujolais, the bottle will say Nouveau if it is the young wine.

Why is this important? Well, I am not sure how important it is, but it started 100’s and some say 1000’s of years ago. This celebration started to celebrate a successful harvest. These Gamay grapes were picked about 6-8 weeks ago, and probably finished fermenting about 2 or so weeks ago! So this is a very young, juicy, fruity wine. This wine is released world wide every year on the 3rd Thursday of November and it is wildly popular with Thanksgiving dinners here in the United States.

The Gamay grape is a cousin to Pinot Noir and it is thin skinned and the wine will be a medium-light bodied wine. This wine in some circles is very welcomed and others are not so found of it. One famous wine educator said it tastes like cookie dough…I am not so sure that is a great description, but I have this wine many times and found it to be a light, fresh and very young wine. It has not seen anytime in aging, so it is very purple in color and tastes like fruit (raspberries and plums), but smells like figs and pears but it’s known for the banana smell you get when you first open the bottle.

Why is this wine so popular in the states? Well, it is on every end cap at every grocery store in November until about the first of the year and the labels are fun and though, many people have no clue how to say it correctly, they like the price point of the wine as well, about $10-15. This young wine is loved with Thanksgiving and I think that is because it is young and there are so many different flavors happening on your table, like turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries, richness in gravy and sage in the stuffing, I think this young flexible wine kinda holds it’s own with the buffet of flavors.

When looking for a Beaujolais Nouveau, look for a label with lots of colorful flowers and the name Georges Duboeuf, these wines will be almost everywhere. When I lived in Indianapolis there was a wine store there, that would have a skydiver jump out of a plane with the first delivery of Beaujolais Nouveau each year…it was kinda cool to watch. This wine needs to be drank within a few months of buying it, but regular Beaujolais can age for quite awhile and gain some very positive profile flavors. This wine should be served chilled about 55 degrees and this is an easy drinking wine, so get one than one bottle, if you have family or friends joining you!

I wanted to share the info about Beaujolais Nouveau wine and the special day it has and tomorrow I will discuss what wines I am taking to my in-laws this year! It might surprise you!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi