Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2010
This week we get the first wine of the french harvest arriving in the shops. In recent years it seems to have been an enormous sales gimmick with the whole story media hyped about the ‘race’ from the vineyard to the restaurant. For me it’s about the change of the seasons, a celebration of the harvest, and drinking the new wine in the third week of November.
Working on the Vendange I drank a fair amount of young wine and grew to savour it, my fellow workers were happy to drink a wine that in a few years might become a vintage. They preferred the fresh fruit and lighter style, even with Grand Crus. It suited the work day. An aged wine was more formal.
In Portugal Vinho Verde (green as in young) wine is not limited to white, in the north the red is widely enjoyed too.
Tonights bottle was drunk with a spiced mushroom and celeriac dish. We are just finishing off the bottle on the sofa. It is soft, young, bright and delicious. It’s not expensive, just over a fiver, I don’t care much how it compares to previous years, or what it will mean for the 2010 vintage I just like that bright fresh taste occasionally.