The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

Nice to See You Again, Beaujolais Nouveau

Posted on | November 26, 2009 | Written by Natasha Badillo | No Comments

This time of year everyone talks about Thanksgiving, and more than making me think of family dinners past, it reminds me of my first wine tasting experiences back in culinary school. We were supposed to be learning how to pair wines with our food, and naturally, all of the students looked forward to these weekly sessions—they were certainly my favorite part of class. Our chef instructor had been the wine steward at Windows on the World, and he was always quite solemn as we discussed the wines, their different aromas and flavors, and how they would stand up to certain foods. It was all quite serious and analytical, and many of my classmates were just plain bored.

But the class I remember best was just a few days before Thanksgiving, and the wine that we tasted in that session was a Beaujolais Nouveau. The chef told us the story of how every year on the third Thursday of November, the winemakers in the Beaujolais region bottle some of their wines after only a few weeks of fermentation and release them as Beaujolais Nouveau. Then on “Beaujolais Day” messengers would race from the vineyards to Paris with the first taste of the new vintage. Of course, the wine is simple, fruity, and not at all serious –it can be more like drinking grape juice than actual wine. Yet no one seemed to be having a problem with finishing their glass.

As we were tasting our Nouveau, another of our chef instructors stopped in to taste a glass. Chef Dominique was a tall man with a thin moustache and the thickest French accent I had ever heard. In his chef’s jacket and toque, he was the quintessential French chef. We asked him what he thought of the wine, expecting him to dismiss it completely and to mock the silly Americans for their unsophisticated tastes in wine. But as he took a sip, a twinkle came into his eye. He smiled and said simply, “It’s fun!”

And when it comes down to it, isn’t that really the point of wine?

Category: Italian Wine Merchants
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