November 17, 2004
Synchronize Your Watches . . .
This Thursday, at exactly one minute past midnight, is the official release of the latest Beaujolais Nouveau wines. At this time, the million plus cases of Beaujolais Nouveau wine will begin their journey - from Beaujolais in the south of Burgundy to wine stores, bars and lushes throughout the world.
This event, which occurs on the third Thursday of every November is accompanied by celebration, fanfare and drunken displays of pure excitement. Yeah, let’s pretend like we need an excuse to drink.
For those of you who haven’t tried Beaujolais Nouveau, it’s a light bodied, fruity, easy-to-drink red wine made from the Gamay grape - or as we like to refer to it “red wine for white wine drinkers”.
Gothamist did a little digging to find out how we can get our hands on the 2004 vintage as quickly as possible. Chelsea Wine Vault, on 9th Ave between 15th and 16th Streets expects to have it in house this Thursday. Line forms to the left. Additionally, the New York Post reports that just past midnight tonight, you can get your first sips (or gulps) at L'Express, 249 Park Ave. S., at 20th Street, (212) 254-5858); Tout Va Bien, 311 W. 51st St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues, (212) 974-9051); and Le Bateau Ivre, 230 E. 51st St., between First and Second avenues (212) 583-0579.
The most well-known maker of Beaujolais Nouveau is George Duboeuf and while prices haven’t been set yet, we can expect to pay around $10 for this wine making it a great value.
Also, for those big Beaujolais fans out there – you know who you are – on December 14th at Café Deville is the Beaujolais Holiday Dinner. For $75 you can try the finest Beaujolais wines matched with the classic French Cuisine that made Beaujolais Nouveau famous.
Bon appetit!
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Beaujolais is a great marketing feat for the French on the Americans. Any person who appreciates wine knows that Nouveau is overpriced crap grape juice. For $10 a bottle go buy yourself a 2000 Bordeaux instead.
I've gotta agree with Nausea, if not his/her tone.
I don't think of BN as a great wine, but more as a harbinger (and a buffer against) of the holiday season. It's got it's little window and that's what makes it fun and special.
On the Americans? Clearly, Nausea hasn't been in France in late November. Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! Overpriced crap grape juice? The 2003 Beaujolais Nouveau (which, thanks to an exceptional summer, was quite good) was a steal—most bottles were $6–8.
Hotness> I actually lived in France for two years and have the intelligence to realize that the BN concept is ramped up in its promotions towards Americans. You need to drink more. Really. And if you can only afford a $6-8 bottle of (French) wine then you shouldn't be purchasing that domestically. Since you seem to know France so well, then you'd realize that you can actually buy a quality bottle there for under $10; and not settle for this hyped up junk. That is, unless you're an ignorant American visiting France, which oddly enough does seem to happen on occasion.
I think that's a little oversassy.
Sassiness is holiness.
My mother is French. I've spent many a holiday season in France. Frankly, I'm not surprised that Nausea didn't experience the Beaujolais Nouveau phenomenon there; would you invite him/her to your Beaujolais Nouveau party?
i remember watching some tv show on the phenomenon of next day shipping on discovery a few years ago and one of the things they covered was beaujolais nouveau. how they managed to bottle, ship and drink it worldwide at the same time despite the time difference.
BN "party"? Are you kidding me? No decent Frenchman/woman would ever have or go to one. Maybe your mom did back in the day when all the French wanted to be American...
My family is in the wine business and an old boyfriend was a French wine importer (as in a Frenchman who imported French wines to this country) and with respect to BN all either ever did was laugh and count their money. Yep, it's covered on the teevee -- it's because they are proud to have such a hooplarific export. But drink it? Jamais.
Please review the Comment Policy and stop raining on everyone's drunken parade:
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Autrement> Bien dit!
http://www.erobertparker.com/info/vintagechart1.html - The top few wines on that chart are Bordeaux and are rated "outstanding" or "extraordinary" for the year 2000.
I've spent 5 years working in the wine business, I've published in Wine Spectator, and I've written articles on the 2000 Bordeaux vintage. I know it's an extraordinary vintage, and I also know that good Bordeaux at $10 is practically an impossibility.
Hey -- people can drink whatever they like. I still have an adolescent nostalgia for Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. So, drink all the BN you like and praise it on high -- that's fine. But asserting that it is important to folks who are serious about wine for reasons other than the cash they can make off the hype and then getting snarky with anyone who disagrees is, well, insoutenable.
KeithS: You beat me to it! I wanna know where I can get my mits on good 2000 Bordeaux for $10. : ). My $10 French reds of choice are all from the southern Rhone . . .
Beaujolais Nouveau is a brilliant marketing invention, and it's a fun wine to drink. It's obviously not a "serious" wine or a wine for contemplation, but rather an excuse for an annual wine party, and a nifty little preview for the vintage which has just passed. Folks who feel the need to deride it reveal more about their own persnoality than any actual wine knowledge.
$10 French red is a tough one, especially outside the Languedoc. That said, at the $15 range you can start getting into some sexy Crozes-Hermitage or Vacqueyras from the south, or some lithe Chinon or Anjou from the Loire.
Sure, it's all marketing, but it's still a *gasp* fun idea to drink the first wine of 2004 even though it's grapey and watery and tastes like kool-aid (although I find chilling it a bit helps)
Tonight my wife and I will dine in our fave french restaurant and enjoy a number of BNs... and dammit, it will be fun.
"Wine is the only thing that makes us happy as adults for no reason"
BN, in my book, is just good cheap fun.
Oh poo. I thought I was Charlie Brown in the Peanuts Xmas special, when in fact I'm the Grinch who stole it! Far be it from me to keep anyone from their fun! And lord knows, I've drunk far yuckier early wines in the name of local celebrations (e.g. that green, fizzy, cloudy, sickly sweet stuff one is served with great fanfare in Austria in Sept). It's just that, golly, the Duboeuf hoo-ha strikes me as so eye-rollingly inauthentic.
And KeithS: several years ago I lived on Domaine la Garrigue cuvée romaine (?) from Vacqueyras, which then, at least, was $10/btl.
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