Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé
Posted by Philippe on
Beaujolais Nouveau 2020 is now available, as every year, it is released on the third thursday of November and therefore it is a very young wine.
We will explain what is a Beaujolais and why Nouveau!
Beaujolais appellation is located between Burgundy and the Rhone and the grape used is called Gamay.
Generally, we taste flavours of red fruits like raspberries, cherries or strawberries.
There is always little hint of spices. On overall, the wine is light to medium bodied with little or soft tannins.
So it is an easy drinking wine, ideal to pair with plenty of varieties of food or just to be drunk with friends.
There are plenty of producers and the quality varies a lot. The wine got a bad reputation as many producers or negociants worked on commercial wine providing very little aromas and even a hint of bubblegums.
But Lately some amazing wine producers decided to change the image of Beaujolais and worked hard to rehabilitate the true Beaujolais. And we work with one of them : Guy Breton.
Guy Breton is known by his friends as Petit Max. He took over the family domaine from his grandfather in 1986. Until that point, the family was selling their fruit to the large cooperative wineries which dominated the region and were gravitating towards a uniform style.
Following the example of traditionalist Jules Chauvet, Guy and three other local vignerons, Marcel Lapierre, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Jean Foillard, soon hoisted the flag of this back-to-nature movement. The Gang called for a return to the old practices of viticulture and vinification: starting with old vines, never using synthetic herbicides or pesticides, harvesting late, rigorously sorting to remove all but the healthiest grapes, adding minimal doses of sulfur dioxide or none at all, and refusing both chaptalisation and filtration.
The Beaujolais Nouveau has existed since 1951, it was aiming to help producers after the war to be able sell some en primeur stocks.
It is also a great way to celebrate the season as we are able to drink wine made last summer.
2020 vintage from Guy Breton “Fanchon” is rich, the fruits are ripe and warm, the cherries dominate the flavours. The colour is very light and some natural spritz can appear in the glass. I would recommend letting the wine breathe a little bit as the wine is actually complex and intense in flavours.
Enjoy the Beaujolais Nouveau!