Thanksgiving brings to mind lots of familiar images: Candlelit dinners with lively conversation, perhaps watching the parade from a friend’s apartment on Central Park West, various forms of cranberry dishes, turkey, and usually Beaujolais Nouveau in our glasses. Why is it so seasonal? November 19th was the wine’s official day, when it is unveiled and uncorked worldwide. The uncorking of the bottles (especially in France) is marked by parties, fireworks and other festivities.
Beaujolais Nouveau was created about a century ago as an inexpensive and cheerful drink produced by its locals to celebrate the end of the harvest season. The Gamay grapes that make it are handpicked in the Beaujolais province of France. Over half of this type of wine is consumed in France, but other big markets include Japan, Germany and the US (hello, Brooklyn!). One is supposed to, traditionally, drink it before May of the following year.
Currently, there are several dozen vintners making this popular red. The Beaujolais province is 34 miles long from north to south, and 7 to 9 miles wide. Nearly 4,000 vineyards produce twelve officially-designated types of Beaujolais known as AOCs. They include some of the finest and priciest grand crus (big vintage) wines around, including Fleurie and Cote de Brouilly. The most common two are the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, the former of which account for half of the region’s annual output. The area boasts some of the oldest vineyards in the country, with vines first planted in Roman times. Beaujolais Nouveau owes its smoothness to carbonic maceration, also known as whole-berry fermentation. This technique preserves the fresh, fruity quality of the grapes without extracting bitter tannins from the grape skins. The wine belongs to a category of wines called “vins primeurs,” meaning any wine sold in the same year it is harvested, not long after completing fermentation.
In the spirit of France, especially now, why not go get a bottle for holiday parties (especially Thanksgiving), to raise a glass and celebrate our collective joie de vivre.
Rebecca Conroy is an artist, stylist, and Editor of A Child Grows in Brooklyn. She is from New York City, and has an MFA from Columbia University in screenwriting. Rebecca often finds herself on film and photography sets making things run or look better, and is the mom of two outrageously wonderful kids.
