Beaujolais Nouveau day – ditch the Nouveau
What if Beaujolais Nouveau day–the third Thursday in November–turned into a celebration of Beaujolais writ large or even larger, wine? According to a report in a British wine publication, that’s what happened yesterday in parts of London.
It’s a good idea. While a friend who just left Paris after living there for several years recalls Beaujolais Nouveau day as the most wonderfully exciting wine day of the year, overseas, the decades-old marketing idea is tired. It’s contrived. It has a unnecessarily large carbon footprint. And 99% of the wines are underwhelming tutti fruity concoctions that serve to qualitatively undermine the name of the whole region. A few shops and restaurants in New York City dutifully stock some bottles of Nouveau but few take too many since what they say about white shoes after Labor Day has an analogy in Beaujolais Nouveau after New Year’s Day.
So I say capture the fun, the celebration, and ditch the nouveau. While slaying the region’s sacred cash cow may seem radical, and recognizing the economic difficulties in the region, after the success of the Summer of Riesling, maybe we need a November of Beaujolais to help the region transition away from Nouveau?
Did you attend any launch events yesterday? What did you think?
On November 16th, 2012 at 2:44 pm ,Justin wrote:
Not to be a wiseass, but it seems to me that if the effect of Beaujolais Nouveau is to give the whole region a bad brand and thereby depress prices of top crus, this is good for the discerning consumer, no? I’d rather pay 20 bucks for great Morgon than 30 bucks.
On November 16th, 2012 at 2:59 pm ,CrewCutter wrote:
I couldn’t agree more! Beaujolais Cru is fantastic stuff, but it gets lost in the Nouveau hype. And like you said, Nouveau is underwhelming. My extended view:
http://greatfermentations.tumblr.com/post/35774236122/just-say-no-to-beaujolais-nouveau
On November 16th, 2012 at 3:44 pm ,Barney Lehrer wrote:
Actually I attended an event yesterday that was hosted by Franck Duboeuf, son of George Duboeuf, Jacques Pepin and Peter Deutsch. And for ounce the nouveau (or at least the Duboeuf) actually tasted like wine! Maybe something has changed.
On November 26th, 2012 at 10:28 am ,Carine wrote:
The beaujolais Nouveau day is getting tired in France too! This marketing strategy has damaged the image of the region in most of consumers’ mind! It is time to move on…