This post was written in 2005. Some information may be out of date.
This year’s Beaujolais Nouveau is at least up to Vin de pays level. What a surprise…
Last year’s was more like table wine (Vin de table)…
Even so, the value for money is still poor… I don’t see myself ever buying it with my own money…
…
A word about Beaujolais Nouveau… wine has this thing called vintage.
A wine made from grapes harvested in 2005 has a vintage of 2005. Wines have
an ideal age to drink at: for cheap wines it’s 1-3 years, for mid- to high-end wines
it’s 3-7 years. The better the wine, the longer it needs to age
before it really comes into its own.
What makes Beaujolais Nouveau special is that it’s the very first wine of the 2005 vintage.
For a wine lover, being the first release of that year’s vintage might mean
a lot, but for ordinary people vintage means next to nothing. (Honestly, with everyday wine
the vintage is just a way to tell whether it’s gone off or not.) Given all that, the commercial hype
around Beaujolais Nouveau is way overblown… However much people love an event, it’s not worth
paying two or three times the fair price.
So I’m not a fan of Beaujolais Nouveau. Barring something unusual, I won’t be spending my own money
on a bottle of it. (Of course, if it’s free, I’ll drink it…)