Beaujolais is nouveau again
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Japanese calendar is nothing if not predictable. So, for example, on February 3rd each year everyone knows that they must go out onto a roof, throw off a handful of beans and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Devils out, happiness in"). Similarly, the third Thursday in Novemeber is always Beaujolais time. Japan goes crazy for young, fruity French wine at incredibly inflated prices. People have parties, give each other presents for no reason and the whole of Japan wakes up with blue teeth and bad breath.
I don't remember anyone in Britain ever getting excited about a new batch of wine, except perhaps Jilly Goolden. But then I don't remember anyone in Britain ever gettting excited about anything in the way Jilly Goolden does about wine.
In Japan, however, something ain't worth doing unless everyone does it. And so the release of new Beaujolais is an event on a par with Christmas. Within two weeks nobody wants to look at the stuff, and it plummets in price so that fad-ignorant foreigners can guzzle it up out of season.
According to the Japan Times, this year's batch "strikes a good balance between fruitiness and acidity". So, that would be a sort of 'winey' taste then?
Labels: Beaujolais, Japan, Jilly Goolden
posted by Blamerbell @ 11:44 am,
2 Comments:
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At 5:09 pm,
Nich Starling said...
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I went to Mexico this year on holiday and all the Americans in the hotel were going mad over "Real French Wine" and wouldn't touch the Mexican stuff. one taste told me the French stuff was what I would call cheap plonk whilst the Mexican stuff was really very good, like a nice South American wine. So its a worldwide thing to get over excited by anything French whilst forgetting that they also made the 2CV, the Maginot Line, General De Gaulle and Sacha Distelle !
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At 7:39 pm,
Blamerbell said...
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Ah, but Asian wine really is terrible. It tastes like it's made from rice even when it's made from grapes.
I think beaujolais nouveau is actually rather pleasant, though I'll look out for the Mexican stuff now. I suppose we always go on about Chilean and Argentinian so there's no reason why Mexico and Bolivia shouldn't be able to produce something half decent.
