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Beaujolais Nouveau 2022 Edition
I would typically start this post with Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé! and go out of my way to have the post out on the third Thursday in November when Beaujolais Nouveau is officially released. As this is posted a few days after the third Thursday in November, it is a bit late to announce its arrival.
As luck would have it, I was in France on that third Thursday. While at the hotel restaurant in Toulouse, I asked the waitress if they had Beaujolais Nouveau available – and the answer was a short “no”. When I mentioned that we were supposed to celebrate the arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau, I got a shoulder shrug back, clearly stating “I have no idea what you are talking about”.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a multifaceted phenomenon. Firstly, it is the wine of a new harvest. Secondly, it should be an indicator of the quality of the vintage. Thirdly, it is a celebration of the new harvest, universally supported throughout the world in the past years. And fourthly, many consider Beaujolais Nouveau a marketing gimmick and simply refuse to get anywhere near that bottle.
I like traditions. As such, I’m happy to celebrate the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau on the regular basis, simply celebrating the wine of the new harvest. How far back this tradition goes and whether it was really created as a marketing ploy to sell mediocre wine is not something that concerns me. We always need more things to celebrate in our lives, and Beaujolais Nouveau offers this perfect celebration opportunity.
2022 Beaujolais Nouveau seems to stand out in a few different ways. On the positive side, I like the label – it is different from the previous years and I find it very elegant. On the negative side, we have price and availability.
I just went through all of the Beaujolais Nouveau notes from the past years – practically every year I had 2, 3, or sometimes 4 wines to taste. From 2010 until 2020, Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau was priced from $8.99 to $10.99. In 2021, it cost $12.99. In 2022 it became $15.99. I always buy my Beaujolais Nouveau wines at the same store, so the pricing is consistent. I understand the inflation, but a 30% increase from the last year? That is a little obnoxious. And there was only one Beaujolais Nouveau available this year. If this wine is a harbinger of the things to come, it doesn’t make me feel very good.
So how was the wine, you ask?
2022 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau AOP (13% ABV, $15.99) had a dark garnet color, very concentrated. Bright and inviting nose of the freshly crushed fruit. The palate was exuding fresh raspberries and blackberries, all tightly packaged with a good amount of energy and supported by crisp acidity. Unlike some of the previous years, I didn’t experiment with the temperature, and the wine was perfectly drinkable at room temperature over the 3 days after it was first opened.
I checked my notes from the previous years, and almost every year I see in my notes “this might be the best Beaujolais Nouveau ever”. This year will not be an exception – once again, this might be the best Beaujolais Nouveau I ever tasted. Drinkability: 8.
Here you can compare the 2022 label with the labels from the previous years. While least colorful, this might be the most elegant label ever – but you be the judge of it. If you care to share your impressions, I would love to hear what you think.
Beaujolais Nouveau 2022 has arrived, It might be a precursor of the harvest of the century. It might be the most interesting Beaujolais Nouveau ever. Let’s wait until Beaujolais Nouveau 2023 to find out. Cheers!
Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé! 2021 Edition
Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé!
It is the third Thursday in November, and that means that the time has come to celebrate this year’s harvest – Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived at the wine store next to you (at least I hope it did, but if you want to get it, you might have to hurry as there is a good chance there is not much of it available).
I had been proactively keeping track of this celebration since this blog has started in 2010 – you can find the full retrospective here, mostly in chronological order. I keep saying that every year Beaujolais Nouveau gets better and better – and this year was no exception – I really enjoyed the 2021 Beaujolais in my glass.
Nevertheless, this year was an exception. Ever since I started writing about Beaujolais Nouveau, there was never a year when I only had one Beaujolais Nouveau wine – for example, last year I had 3 Beaujolais Nouveau wines and one Nouveau from Oregon. Most of the years I had at least 3, and a few years there were only two. But this year there was only one, and even that has limited availability and most likely will not last even until Thanksgiving, at least at the store where I bought it. Yep, you knew this already – supply chain issues. There might be more of the Beaujolais Nouveau showing up later on, but it is not very clear what and when.
Few more interesting Beaujolais Nouveau-related tidbits I never thought of before. First, according to the Burgundy Report, this year there were only 100 different Beaujolais Nouveau wines produced in France, which is significantly down from the last year’s number of 160. I was sure that there are many Beaujolais Nouveau wines produced in France, but I didn’t expect the number to be that high.
While searching for the information online, I came across the article where I learned about the Georges Duboeuf First Wine of the Harvest sweepstakes! Each cork of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau wine carries a unique number (who knew!), which can be entered on the First Wine of the Harvest website, and you will be instantly notified if you won something (I have no idea what you can win, and I won nothing). Apparently, this is not the first the sweepstakes are played, but if I wouldn’t read about it online I would still have no idea it existed.
Finally, let’s talk about the wine. According to the same Burgundy Report I mentioned before, Beaujolais regional Marketing board defined the vintage as “combative” – frost in April, and summer of rain and hail are not exactly the ideal grape-growing conditions. Relatively calm and cool September offer some relief, and while overall yield was significantly down, it was possible to preserve the quality of the harvest.
2021 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau AOP (12.5% ABV, $12.99) has a bright ruby color, a restrained nose of the freshly crushed fruit, and copious amounts of fresh raspberries and cherries on the palate with good acidity on the finish. While the wine is perfectly drinkable at room temperature (68°F), it is showing the best slightly chilled at around 58°F – 60°F.
Back in 2017, Georges Duboeuf started the “Artist Collector Series” of the Beaujolais Nouveau wine labels, where the public is given an opportunity to vote for the favorite design which will be then printed on the label. This year’s Beaujolais Nouveau label features work by the artist Felice Kite called “For The Love Of Flowers”.
Before I conclude my Beaujolais Nouveau 2021 report, I want to offer you a fun exercise – below is the collection of the Beaujolais Nouveau labels from 2010 until 2021 (note that I came across two distinct labels in 2015). I want you to choose a favorite (or 3, or 5) and share your opinion in the comments. I guarantee you that you will get no prize for participation in this exercise, but hopefully, it will be fun.
Beaujolais Nouveau 2021 has arrived, it is definitely worth your attention, it will be perfect with Thanksgiving turkey if you will be so inclined – but you can’t procrastinate if you want to try it. Cheers!
Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé! 2017 Edition
I know, it’s been [more than] a few days since the coveted words “Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé” had been heard again, now in 2017 – but my posting desires don’t always match the real life, hence my Beaujolaies Nouveu notes are arriving a bit late this year.
I definitely like Beaujolais Nouveau – not always the wine itself, but for sure, the idea. It is fun to celebrate new harvest, and that’s what Beaujolais Nouveau does – the wines are made from the freshly harvested grapes, and as such, Beaujolais Nouveau wines are not polished – they are fresh, they are rasp, they want to play and don’t want to have any bounds – the babies, what can you do.
Ever since this blog started, I made an effort to share my notes and thoughts about Beaujolais Nouveau wines – here you can find the posts from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The 2012 post has a bit more information about the history of the Beaujolais Nouveau and the celebration overall.
Thinking about the year 2017, I wonder if the Beaujolais Nouveau celebration is getting a little smaller? In the past years, many of the wineries around the world (California etc.) also produced their version of the Nouveau wines – I had not seen those in a few years. I didn’t see much of the promotion and event advertisement for the Beaujolais Nouveau celebration in the USA and around the world. It also seems that the wines were priced at a little less – I have a frame of reference as I always buy my Beaujolais Nouveau wines at one and the same store, so it seems that the prices were less by a dollar for all the different brands.
Over the past few years, I noticed that Georges Duboeuf wines are produced with different labels within the same vintage. 2017 was not an exception – I saw different labels on Internet, and I also saw different types of enclosures in the different markets. All 3 wines I tried were enclosed with some type of cork, natural or synthetic. But then I saw Georges Duboeuf wines enclosed with a screwtop, for instance, in Helsinki – you can see it here.
How were the wines, you ask? It seems that modern Beaujolais Nouveau wines keep increasing their extraction and overall mouthfeel – they really don’t feel all that “Nouveau”, except the nose of the freshly crushed berries which is unmistakably present, but even that is getting more restrained and balanced. Definitely interesting wines, definitely drinkable, and dare I say it, possibly ageable past the traditional 9 months? Not that you need to age Beaujolais Nouveau, but it can be an interesting experiment.
Anyway, here are my notes:
Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivé! 2016 Edition
There is no shortage of the grape holidays nowadays – we celebrate Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo, Chardonnay and many other grapes, sometimes even two per day. However, the oldest grape celebration in existence is Beaujolais Nouveau Day, celebrated on the third Thursday in November, which happened to be November 17th this year.
Of course, Beaujolais Nouveau Day is not so much of a grape celebration (which would be a Gamay day) but really the celebration of the new harvest, which was a very old tradition in the Beaujolais region, neighboring Burgundy, in France. Georges Duboeuf, a famous French wine merchant, is credited with making Beaujolais Nouveau Day an international event more than 30 years ago. What was just a local harvest festival became an international event, widely anticipated and celebrated around the world, from Tokyo to Moscow to New York.
While Beaujolais Nouveau Day is [still] often dismissed as a marketing gimmick, I’m always looking forward trying the new Beaujolais Nouveau wines, to be able to see their evolution. Ever since this blog started in 2010, Beaujolais Nouveau was always part of it – here you can find the old posts from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. In case you want to learn a bit more about the history of the celebration, please take a look at the post from 2012 – it contains more information than the other posts.
Here are the notes on the 2 wines I was able to taste this year:
2016 Georges Dubœuf Beaujolais Nouveau (12% ABV, $9.99)
C: Dark ruby
N: fresh fruit, intense, ripe raspberries, herbal undertones, not over the top
P: elegant, fresh, red fruit notes, crunchy berries, excellent acidity
V: 8-, very enjoyable and elegant
2016 Paul Durdilly et Fils “Les Grandes Coasses” Beaujolais Nouveau (12.5% ABV, $9.99)
C: dark ruby
N: spicy cherries, mint, inviting
P: very limited amount of fruit, big contrast with the nose. For the Beaujolais Nouveau, might be even too restrained.
V: 7, leaving desiring more on the palate.
Talking about the two wines I tasted, I have to admit that I forgot to lightly chill them, which is recommended. This definitely had no effect on Georges Duboeuf wine, but it might be a culprit behind the limited expression of the second wine.
Before we part, I want to bring to your attention the label of the Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau. Besides the fact that I personally like it, the important part if that for the first time ever, the label for this wine was chosen by the wine consumers voting for one of the 12 different designs submitted for the competition. I think the consumers chosen well, right?
For the past 3-4 years, I find Beaujolais Nouveau a very enjoyable wine, well worthy of oenophile’s attention. What do you think of Beaujolais Nouveau? Any favorites? Cheers!
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