KEY POINTS:
Tomorrow is the third Thursday in November. So what's so special about that, you ask? Why, it's Beaujolais Nouveau Day, of course. The day when this French region sends out the first fruits of its latest vintage into the world, in theory stimulating a scramble to see who can be the first to serve these ultra-youthful wines.
It was a great marketing ploy resulting in a large percentage of the region's wines purchased and polished off in a very short space of time. However, the cry of "Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrive!" (the new Beaujolais has arrived) that once resonated with excitement across many wine-drinking nations has had a rather hollow ring to it in recent years.
Even when I was selling wine over a decade ago back in Britain, a bastion of French wine-drinking tradition, the only people who seemed to get excited by Beaujolais nouveau were Japanese tourists. Japan is the main market for nouveau, and likely one of the few places outside France to be celebrating the 20th with great gusto.
Made from the gamay grape, the best Beaujolais nouveau, like many standard Beaujolais, are light, fresh, fruity and floral, best served chilled and drunk in the year of their release. While the nouveau hits its main markets in the Northern Hemisphere as the season becomes more chilly, it's actually best suited to summer drinking, making the timing of its release more applicable to the current Southern Hemisphere season.
Beaujolais nouveau's corks will be popping on Thursday in New Zealand as the "King of Nouveau", Georges Duboeuf, gets celebrations going across the Glengarry chain, Dida's and The Grange. Nouveau will also be flowing at Auckland French wine specialists Maison Vauron.
This is despite the fact air freighting the wines halfway around the world to make the date can add around $11 to each bottle. "We have customers who buy a couple of cases every year," says Maison Vauron's Jean-Christophe Poizat, "so there's definitely still a market for it out there."
However, that market would appear to be getting smaller worldwide as some Beaujolais-makers concentrate on pouring their energy into more profitable wines.
At issue has been the wisdom of using the region's most simple wines as flag-bearers and the main focus of its marketing. Drinking a wine so recently off the vine is as half-baked as consuming cake mix, according to some critics: it's an issue I've had with the early-release sauvignons we've started to see more of in New Zealand, which would have benefited from more time gaining complexity in vat rather than being rushed onto the market as early as May.
But there is more to Beaujolais than nouveau. The region is capable of producing wines with considerably more substance from its cru, where gamay can exhibit more pinot noir-like depth and earthiness. It's also a shame to just drink Beaujolais around the time of the nouveau release, something the campaign has unwittingly installed.
Its days may be numbered, with a new threat emerging in the form of the carbon footprint left by the air freighting inherent in getting nouveau to far-flung markets and American wine researcher Dr Vino urging people to boycott Beaujolais nouveau and try a local wine on Thursday instead.
The gamay's on!
Chateau du Bourg Beaujolais Villages 2007 $22.50
A lovely Beaujolais Villages with white chocolate-dipped strawberry fruit and hint of spice with more depth than most. Also look out for this producer's nouveau at Maison Vauron from tomorrow under the Famille Matray label. (From Maison Vauron.)
Potel-Aviron Moulin a Vent Vieilles Vignes 2006 $37
Miles away from the simple red fruit and bubblegum flavours of many Beaujolais, this cru wine of Burgundian negociant Nicolas Potel and Beaujolais grower Stephane Aviron from Moulin a Vents, with its attractive bramble fruit, clovey spice, coffee beans, rose and earthy mineral undertone, illustrates that Beaujolais can make wines with gravitas.
(From Maison Vauron.)
Te Mata Woodthorpe Hawkes Bay Gamay Noir 2008 $21
A local Beaujolais alternative produced from the same grape variety that its makers Te Mata report has really been taking off in recent years. Fresh and easy drinking with juicy cherry berries and notes of rose, it has more appeal than many a nouveau.
(From Caro's, Wine Villa, Scenic Cellars, Advintage, selected supermarkets.)
