Beaujolais Nouveau 2017 Review

By Scott

November is an interesting time of year. Here in the northern hemisphere, it is the real start to winter in a lot of locations. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the beginning of spring in many latitudes.  Here at VO HQ, or at least my corner of it, November is a bit of a let down. October has warm days, cool nights, the celebrations of anniversaries, birthdays and Thanksgiving in Canada. November's increasing darkness and colder weather brings a reminder that the year is close to an end and that the rush of the holidays is almost upon us. But in the midst of that, there are certainly many things to celebrate.

Thanksgiving (The US one) is coming up in about a week and I love getting together with friends to converse, eat, and enjoy their company.  The week prior to it is the release of Beaujolais Nouveau - the youngest of the French wines, that are released at on the third Thursday of November. These are wines that have only been bottled for 6-8 weeks, so the Gamay grapes that are typically used, have little tanin and a very fruity flavor to them. Perfect for those of us who aren't the biggest wine drinkers.

Here at VO, the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau has always been treated as a great excuse for the staff to relax and taste test that year's vintage. None of us are great wine drinkers, so this is always a great contest to see who could sound the most, ahem, "wine critic-y" of all. Talk of fruitiness, of the taste of plums and such waft around the office here as we taste these wines that, at most, come out to $10 a bottle.

We tried Pierre-Marie Chermette vineyard this year.  This vineyard has a different take on it's grapes, using older ones for the Beaujolais then most vineyards do. The result is a wine that was more robust then other varieties that we had previously tried.  It has a dry finish, but good legs. Igor could taste some plums with an air of strawberries. Will thought that it was "very aromatic." Derek's comment at the end of the tasting was that he was "a fan", of this vintage.

Wine might not be to every one's fancy, but certainly it is a reason to stop, smell the cork as it were and relax with friends.

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