I decided to take a very brief detour off of Bordeaux to taste the 2010 Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is in Burgundy, but unlike the rest of red wine produced in Burgundy, Beaujolais is made from the grape, a grape that apparently doesn’t produce much of anything worth drinking anywhere else that it’s grown. I tried a Beaujolais a few months back (and didn’t enjoy it either), but this is .

What does that mean exactly? Well, as you might have guessed, its pretty new wine. Its the 2010 vintage, which considering that grapes are harvested in the fall and I’ve already had it... Technically speaking, it is wine that is 7-9 weeks old. Traditionally, it was then shipped nearby for people to drink in celebration of the harvest. Like American Thanksgiving, if you will. Of course, now its shipped worldwide; my Whole Foods had signs up in anticipation of its arrival for weeks ahead of time. Legally, the wine cannot be released until the third Wednesday of November. So, on November 18th it hit the shelves. Touted as an excellent accompaniment to Thanksgiving dinner*, I decided to pick up at bottle. I mean, it was only $7.99. (*We already had an excellent Thanksgiving wine chosen, so we drank it along with leftovers after the holiday.)

I’ll save the specifics on how gamay is grown and fermented (both unusual) for when I really taste Beaujolais. Given my impression from this wine and the ill-fated Trader Joe’s Beaujolais, I see that it is IMPERATIVE that I taste a Cru wine if I want to enjoy it.

The wine was a magenta purplish color and was intensely fruity on the nose. It smelled almost candy-like. It was very light-bodied and had a general fruitiness, but was also the slightest bit sour. We drank almost half of this bottle before pouring it down the drain. It wasn’t horrible, certainly drinkable, but why drink mediocre wine when you can drink great wine?

The Score ★½

To 'celebrate' Myles' birthday and Evan turning one month old last week, everyone in the family, except Myles, came down with a summer cold. Thus, tasting our next Alsatian wine has been put on hold until my schnoz is fully recovered. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a little musing I wrote up whilst still pregnant and intended to post waiting for Evan to arrive. Thankfully, he came soon enough I didn't get this up!

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I consider it part of my education to look at wine, wine labels and restaurant wine lists whenever I get a chance. I practice reading European labels (and remembering what might be inside!) and try to familiarize myself with winery names, appellations, varietals, prices, etc. A concurrent shopping trip slash pop quiz, if you will.

One of the most recent places that I found myself perusing the wine aisle was at Target. For the most part, I’d written it all off before even walking down the aisle. There couldn’t possibly be any decent wine for sale at Target. Then, as I scanned the shelves, I noticed a bottle of Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages. Hmmm... wasn’t that one of the examples of Beaujolais mentioned in one of my books? I know I recognize the name Louis Jadot, a commonly seen shipper of French Burgundy wines here in the U.S. Beaujolais (from 100% gamay grapes) is on my list of wines I want to try, although I have specifically marked down I’d like to try a Cru (rather than Neauvou or Villages). I’m intrigued by this red wine that is to be served cold (55 degrees). As I stood in the Target aisle, bottle of wine in hand, I was tempted. Ultimately, I went home empty-handed (well, without any wine, it’s Target-- no one can go home empty-handed), because I didn’t know the answer to this question: is it ok to buy wine at the same place I get my toilet paper and laundry detergent?

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And while we all ponder this question, I want to add that I did pick up a Louis Jadot Beaujolais (the aforementioned red wine disappointment in the previous post), however I didn't ultimately purchase at Target, but Trader Joe's. Of course, once we had the bottle open I realized it wasn't even a "villages" wine, but just generic Beaujolais, lower on the totem pole than the wine I'd seen at Target! Hopefully that explains its disappointing-ness. We tried it cold first (in the rough ballpark of 55 degrees) and it was not really good at all. Letting it come to room temperature improved it enough to finish the bottle. I have decided not to officially post that I've tasted my Beaujolais, as I think there's more there than this particular wine offered. We'll return to it in the future-- at which time I will not purchase the wine at Target. Or Trader Joe's.