By The Glass
RICHARD FIELD
Beaujolais’ arrival
is cause for celebrationThe third Thursday of November is a heralded day in winedom. It is the official and legal release date for the first wine of the French vintage. Beaujolais Nouveau!
The 2002 edition should be in stores by Thursday, Nov. 21. The nouveau wine is actually made in a fairly unique way. Instead of crushing the grapes and fermenting the juice, whole bunches or clusters of grapes are placed in a large tank. The grapes are then subjected to pressure and the fermentation begins within the individual grapes, until they burst with nouveau wine.
Through this method, the wine is a very grapey, easy-to-drink wine with practically no tannin (the puckery stuff in red wine) but lots of fruit. This is as un-serious a wine as you could enjoy. And many who don't like red wine are surprised to find that they enjoy this wine.
Now, what of this special designation that appears on some labels?
The grapes that are grown in the region referred to as "Villages" come from some of the 39 villages that produce better quality wines because the soil is granite based and the vineyards exposure to the sunlight is more favorable. The Gamay grape loves granitic soil.
The regular versions of nouveau are grown in the outlying areas where clay is the major component of the soil and which offers very little to the flavor of this grape.
The "Villages" costs a little more -- $10 to $11, compared to $9 for regular nouveau -- but you get your money's worth relative to the difference in flavor.
Because this wine is so light, treat it more like a white wine and serve it as chilled as you prefer. Consider the wine for Thanksgiving dinner too, because with all the different foods on the table, you need a versatile and easily quaffable wine that is light and refreshing.
Richard Field owns R. Field Food and Wine Co.
This column is a weekly lesson in wine
pairing written by a rotating panel of wine professionals.
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