wine fanatics everywhere are probably already filled with beaujolais nouveau right now as i write this post! today is the official release of the beaujolais region’s (lyon to the south of burgundy) special wine (vin de primeur) made from gamay grapes and released the third thursday of november every year.

how is it different than other wines? the process: beaujolais nouveau is produced by carbonic maceration followed by pasteurization (bypassing the malolactic fermentation process in other wines) and therefore takes a mere six weeks to produce after harvest. it is a type of wine that does not last and is best consumed within a few weeks. it is, in other words, INFERIOR WINE made from some of the worst vineyards and crop yields of the year.

half of the beaujolais nouveau is exported. last year (2004) japan was the top importer of beaujolais nouveau over the u.s. (about 1 million cases – that’s roughly 50% of the beaujolais exported from france!) and that nearly killed them in airfreight costs alone.

by far the most popular producer of beaujolais nouveau is georges duboeuf, the king of beaujolais, made the king by his own pimped PR machine and the well-known flowery bottle labels. though, there are better beaujolais to be had.

mike steinberger from slate magazine says it best with some wise advice if you’re looking for a good beaujolais:

“Should you find yourself succumbing to the hype over the next few days, here’s a suggestion: Skip the Nouveau, bypass the Duboeuf (the king does not need your money), and instead look for a Cru Beaujolais. They generally run between $10 and $20, and the best are brought in by the following importers: Louis/Dressner, Alain Junguenet, and Kermit Lynch. Some wines to look for: Chateau Thivin (from the Côte de Brouilly appellation), Jacky Janodet (Moulin-à-Vent, the most esteemed appellation in Beaujolais), Marcel Lapierre (Morgon), Domaine Diochon (Moulin-à-Vent), Jean-Paul Thevenet(Morgon), and Michel Tete (Juliénas).

Not every good Beaujolais is necessarily a fancy growth, however. A personal favorite is Dupeuble, a wine of low pedigree that is made by a conscientious producer whose ambition is not to suck every bit of life out of his vineyard but to fashion a quality quaffer. That he does: The wine, which retails for around $10, is everything good Beaujolais should be—fruity, sprightly, utterly charming. If I owned a house and had a house wine, Dupeuble would be it.”

[via slate, tizwine, the japan times, wikipedia]

tags: beaujolais france wine deboeuf aoc

i often run into europeans who SWEAR that americans have no concept of GEOGRAPHY, not knowing where anything is. i usually try to defend that generalization to an extent stating that is overly exaggerated to declare such biases – but after seeing this “map” of “france” on CNN as was reported by french television 2, DO YOU BLAME THEM?

first of all, according to CNN, the WORLD LEADER OF NEWS, the city of toulouse, normally found in southwest france, is now cavorting around northern italy! (possibly switzerland). was there an earthquake i missed? lyon has moved too! strasbourg, usually found in the alsace-lorraine area of france, has shifted to germany. yes, yes, strasbourg SOUNDS german but that doesn’t mean it’s in germany! since when did france spread to POLAND? cannes is miraculously situated where perpignan normally hangs out. (a rough 400 miles off base along the coast). where did perpignan go? anyway.

tags: france cnn geography generalizations journalistic integrity news reporting

a law was passed in france to put a positive SPIN in textbooks related to its painful colonial past, making it mandatory to enshrine in textbooks the country’s “positive role” in its colonies.

do i hear revisionism? since when is colonialism POSITIVE?

[via France Orders Positive Spin on Colonialism]