Wine lovers tend to frown upon Beaujolais Nouveau as a cynical marketing gimmick, but we really should think of it as a fun celebration of the recent harvest. It’s Thanksgiving time, after all, and what is the National Day of Gluttony if it isn’t a celebration of food and the recent harvest? That Nouveau comes on the market exactly one week before Turkey Day is all the more fitting. Think of it as Hands Across the Sea, Franco-American friendship at its best.
If you’d like to experience a Beaujolais Nouveau with some heft, the 2009 vintage is ideal. This was a terrific year in Burgundy and Beaujolais by all accounts, and even the simple, early drinking young Nouveaux will reflect the quality of the vintage.
My call this year is the Domaine de Vissoux Beaujolais Primeur 2009 from winemaker Pierre Chermette and importer Peter Weygandt. At $13, it’s an effusive, fruity wine that shouts fun and hints of great things to come from this vintage.
The wine is available in DC at the new Weygandt Wines store in Cleveland Park. The store opened just last month, and features about 450 selections that are imported by Weygandt under his Peter Weygandt Selections label. Wine lovers will recognize that Weygandt is following a rare example – famed importer Kermit Lynch has a store in Berkeley, California, featuring his imports, and Neal Rosenthal transformed his retail operation into an importing business. But importer as retailer is still rare, and it’s exciting that Weygandt, who is based near Philadelphia, has decided to open a retail store in Washington.
More to come on this new entrant to the DC wine retail scene. For now, enjoy this delightful Beaujolais Nouveau – er, “primeur” – and celebrate the new harvest and the new entry into the local wine retail scene.
Postscript: After this item was posted yesterday on "All You Can Eat," the food blog of The Washington Post, someone calling himself Gary4Books posted this comment:
I am so impressed. Sophisticated wine drinking seems to go perfectly with gluttony.
Enjoy!
But do not expect me to join in.
Aside from the fact that Beaujolais Nouveau hardly counts as "sophisticated wine drinking," why is someone with that attitude even reading a food blog to begin with?
