Nouveau Wines Arrive Thursday

On Thursday, Nov. 20, wine lovers will be toasting the first wines bottled from the Northern Hemisphere's 2003 grape harvest. As per tradition, Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in select Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) outlets on the third Thursday of November.

NSLC features Beaujolais Nouveau from French producers Bouchard Aine, Georges Duboeuf, Noemie Vernaux, Joseph Drouhin, Chateau de Corton-Andre and Reine Pedauque, Nouveau from the Cotes Du Rhone region from Jean Jean and Italian Vino Novello from Zonin.

This year is expected to be an exceptional one for French wine producers who began picking their grapes on Aug. 25. Grapes have not been picked so early since 1893 -- making the 2003 vintage one for the history books. The 2003 Beaujolais is expected to be particularly intense and complex with plenty of red fruit like raspberry, strawberry and red currant.

Nouveau-style wines are designed with early drinking in mind, often reaching maturity by the Christmas holidays. The wines are lively and aromatic and differ from others because of the method of fermentation. Great care is taken not to damage the fruit during the picking stage so that fermentation can be encouraged within the skin. The production process takes only about 48 hours, instead of 10 to 12 days, and creates a wine with a full berry hue and a velvety, fresh fruit flavour.

Unlike other red wines, Beaujolais Nouveau should be served chilled at 10 to 13 C.

The celebration of Beaujolais Nouveau has taken on great proportions in recent years. Producers have used many tactics to entice consumers to purchase the first wine of the year, from racing cases of wines to the nearest market to the now famous labels featuring original art.

Beaujolais Nouveau presents the wine buying public a preview of the vintage year and can be a measure of the quality of a winemaker's spring release.