Trade ushers in Beaujolais Nouveau
Beaujolais Thursday is being marked with a flurry of on-trade events, restoring some of the sheen to day that many in the UK trade feel has been steadily losing its gloss.
London merchant Lea & Sandeman admitted it “really cannot remember the last time we released one” but is listing a nouveau from Domaine de la Rochette in Régnié.
The company said: “The 2011 vintage in Beaujolais wonderfully combines the deep ripe fruits of ’09 with the bright silky focus of ’10, making it an absolutely classic year for Gamay at its most enjoyable.”
Beaujolais Nouveau is released each year on the third Thursday of November. It was a mainstay of the UK wine trade during the 1970s and 1980s but has been derided by many as a marketing stunt in more recent times.
Chris Beaumont of the Greys pub in Brighton is holding a special event on Thursday night to mark the occasion, with a bottle costing £10 when ordered with any main course. “Now that the French are no longer trying to pull the wool over our eyes by sending us dodgy first pressings of this wonderful wine, we have, for the last five or six years been getting some of the best available,” he said.
Anne Burchett, managing director of French wine marketing agency Sopexa UK, said the “beauty and frustration” of Beajolais Nouveau is that is puts great focus on the appellation, but that it is limiting, as “blink and you miss it”. In addition she said that it focuses attention on one particular part of production, when the choice of Beaujolais wines is so much wider.
Story by Graham Holter
Courtesy of Harpers Wine & Spirit Trades Review
