About a hundred years ago some winemakers of the Beaujolais region, in southern Burgundy, of beautiful France decided that they would produce a cheap and cheerful little number to celebrate the end of the harvest and the new vintage grapes. Over the ensuing years the tradition has grown legs, and now the occasion is marked, always on the third Thursday of November, with a competition to identify the 12 varieties of Beaujolais wine. . . and the attention of wine buffs all over the world is rapt. . . the Town’s streets heave with celebrations and festivities as the party progresses into the night, torches parade and fireworks boom, and at exactly midnight the residents of Beaujeu open the barrels of the new wine and announce the arrival of new vintage Beaujolais Nouveau!
The waiting world of wine has embarked on trains, planes and automobiles in order to be the first to serve the wine, the race is on and Beaujolais is the prize.
In the ‘90s, the tradition seemed to peter out a little amid criticism of the quality of the wine, and a lack of style and class. . . Could the French have loosened their grip on the standard? After all, Les Anglais were so caught up in the fun, does it matter how the wine actually tastes?
Well, maybe once that was so, but these days the tradition lives on and seems as popular as ever.
The Gamay grape is fruity and lends itself well to the inimitable style of the wine which is fermented using the whole berries. It is young, light, fresh, and worryingly, very easy drinking. Lovely served chilled too!
One of the joys of The Lighthouse is that we can embrace this date, and in true style we offer a fabulous French Retro menu to serve with this rather classy little wine, certainly less cheap and cheerful than its original was intended to be.
We may need to divert some of our allocation to Boboli too, we can’t let The Lighthouse have all the fun!
The Lighthouse is celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau Day with a special menu, you can find more information here.
Ciao for now!
Sarah x
20TH ANNIVERSARY QUIZ
Q17 What date is Beaujolais Nouveau Day this year?
Just answer in the comments below and we’ll enter you into our prize draw celebrating our 20th anniversary! (Please be sure to put your email address on your comment so that we can contact you if you’re one of our lucky winners)
Look out for other 20th anniversary quiz questions on our future blog posts. Prize draw winners to be announced on 1st January 2020.
