Beaujolais nouveau is a purple-pink wine reflecting its youth, bottled only 6-8 weeks after harvest. The method of production means that there is very little tannin, and the wine can be dominated by such fruity ester flavours as banana, fig and pear drop. The wine is recommended to be slightly chilled to 13°C (55°F).
Beaujolais nouveau is intended for immediate drinking and not for keeping. While some nouveau can be kept for a few years, there’s no real reason to, as it doesn’t improve with age, and is made to be consumed in the same year as it is harvested. For comparison, standard Beaujolais AOC wines are released the following year and can be stored for one or more years before consuming. The wines show definite variation between vintages, and as such are eagerly awaited as a first indicator of the quality of the year’s regional wine harvest.
For a period around the late 90s some wine critics criticized Beaujolais nouveau as simple or immature. The wine critic Karen MacNeil has compared drinking Beaujolais nouveau with eating cookie dough. (read more here…)
The Wall Street Journal
“Our best of tasting this year, Antonin Rodet, is the most spot-on Nouveau we have tasted in some years. It took us back to why we became Nouveau fans in the first place, with the kind of super-fresh, just-the-fruit-ma’am tastes that we love. Over the years, we’ve visited many wineries during or just after the harvest and have tasted their fresh juice, and this wine reminded us of those visits. What could be better?”
Wine Enthusiast Magazine
“Excellent color on this firmly fruity wine. It has an appealing edge of tannins, giving it good structure, while showing a wide range of the fresh Nouveau fruit.”
