(18 Nov 2021) A new season of the famed young French wine Beaujolais Nouveau has been uncorked.
Winemakers and sellers traditionally uncork the season’s Beaujolais with feasting and fanfare on the third Thursday of November.
A stone’s throw from the Basilica of Montmartre is a La Bonne Franquette, a bistro dating from the 19th century where every year co-owner Luc Fracheboud serves the wine under the motto “We taste Beaujolais with friends”.
Fracheboud bought 900 bottles to host a large party on Thursday.
He said this year’s wine was fruity and tasted of red berries.
The famous wine, made from the Gamay grape, was flown abroad after being harvested only two months ago in the French Beaujolais region.
Despite being made from the same grape, the taste varies from one winegrower to another, with some people saying some Beaujolais not made to certain standards have flavour notes of banana.
La Bonne Franquette’s co-owner Anne Fracheboud said this wasn’t the case with this sample.
“There’s never a Beaujolais tasting like banana here,” she said laughing. “We have Beaujolais Nouveau from the best winemakers of the region. And there’s no banana!”
Traditionally the wine is only allowed to be sold after midnight on the third Thursday of November.
People have begun gathering in preparation to test the Beaujolais 2021, the last of the century.
Customers said they were delighted to be able to share in the French tradition again after not being able to last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beaujolais Nouveau night in Paris is mostly about relaxed drinking to the traditional accompaniment of accordion music and fine cheeses.
Beaujolais, a region spanning 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Lyon, has spent decades marketing its wines globally.
It now exports to more than 110 countries, according to statistics from Vinescence, a wine production company working with 310 winemakers in the area.
The wine — light, fruity, and not too alcoholic — lends itself to early consumption, producers say.
And the time peg lends itself to parties.
Producers have marketed it with the holiday season, opening sales a month before Christmas, and a week before Thanksgiving in the United States.
The largest numbers of bottles the young wine are consumed in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Japan, Belgium and the United States.
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