Many are the stories I could hear about the new Beaujolais. The most interesting for me, but perhaps less real was the one that a professor told me during my sommery studies, who told us that the story of the new Beaujolais came from a gentleman, a wine producer who had produced a lot of wine and who did not know how to sell his merchandise. Time passed and one day a man from abroad said to him, "Ah, it's Beaujolais? If it's New I buy you the whole stock" and as a simple afternoon the first wine was called Le Beaujolais Nouveau. Apparently, at the time of this gentleman, the laws of AOC did not exist as today. Later, still during my studies this time in the wine trade, I had another professor who explained to us that Beaujolais nouveau was born from a demonstration of wine producers in the 1950s who were banned from selling their wines in the first place before 15 December of the year of harvest. Since then, the agreement of this regulation for AOC wines to be marketed on the third Thursday of November, especially in 1951. History that we can all find in the pages of the French law of controlled/protected labels of origin.

The Beaujolais Nouveau tradition has since existed, and it has evolved enormously over the years with an explosion of sales in the 1960s once the tradition had settled and it evolved until the 1980s to become a tradition that is lost a little with the arrival of the new wine-using generation. Yet the types of production follow the market demand as well as the demand of the planet. We see more and more Beaujolais in organic production, biodynamics or without added sulphites. And how do we do it? To make it very simple: grapes are picked during harvests in late summer early autumn, they are the first grapes harvested. Then they are put in a tank for the start of its fermentation, so the grapes are fermented with closed tank, the gas of the fermentation remaining imprisoned in the tank will give aromas to the very specific wines – what we call carbonic maceration – of the style banana, the small red fruits crunching, the English sweet side.. Finished fermentation the wine can spend a short time rearing and then being bottled. It is therefore the first wine to be marketed again in the year of its harvest.

The most interesting in this diversity of production is that we always find this little identity nose of the new Beaujolais. The small red fruits, almost candied, the lightness of the tannins, this gourling and refreshing side show us, every year that it has its place. Very easy to marry, on a nice tray of charcuterie, on fruity cheeses as well as on dishes without taking a head, Beaujolais remains this wine fresh, easy and light. Despite the climate change that brings more and more sugar to the grapes, the wine structure has evolved and has become richer, very favorable to tasting and especially a plus for lovers of red wine.

And today, November 17, 2022 out of Beaujolais Nouveau I couldn't pass by making a little note of this tradition. To your glasses! Good tasting!