To me Beaujolais Nouveau is a celebration wine as it is released the week of my birthday each year. It also celebrates the just completed harvest and the promise for the wines made in Burgundy that year. Seems a lot of wine geeks and other bloggers don’t care for the stuff and that’s fine with me as you should drink what you like.

Before I present my favorite wine tasted this year, a bit of a story about my relationship with Beaujolais Nouveau. Back when I lived in Orange County, California there was a restaurant called Bouzy Rouge in Newport Beach. This was before the area was branded “The OC” in television and lifestyles of housewives so a bit of eccentricity was still allowed. The owner’s dilapidated Citroen was parked in front of the restaurant and they had some fun events, like the Beaujolais Nouveau release each year. My wife and I went every year we lived there and the young wine was served directly from the barrel into carafe or glass. It was almost like you were in Beaujolais. So this is what I remember each year when the time comes to try the new vintage.

This year I went to a couple of the better local stores and sampled 7 or 8 wines from different producers. Most were fine; fruity and exuberant but seemed a bit one dimensional which is par for the course here. Only one wine was very disappointing, served from promotional barrel (a very small one) that took me back to Bouzy Rouge. Ironically it was from the same producer I enjoyed so many years ago, Georges Duboeuf (could have been an off-barrel, I suppose). But of all the wines I sampled, only one stood out as something I’d like to take home. And I did just that and offer this review from the bottle opened this evening.

Pascal Chatelus, Beaujolais Nouveau 2007 ($12) - Bright ruby in color with aromas of wild cherry candy and banana. Juicy and tart in the mouth with candied cherry and strawberry fruit with some banana from the mid-palate to the finish. Just what I’m looking for in a Beaujolais Nouveau. Drink before 2008, preferably with food and good friends.

12.5% ABV
Composite cork closure
Score: 84
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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