The 08 Beaujolais Has Arrived! But Maybe I’ll Try An 07 Cru?

That’s right kids, yesterday was the third Thursday of the month, which means the annual arrival of the Beaujolais Nouveau, the briefly fermented, fruity, sugary wine from the Beujolais region of France made from the Gamay grape.

The wine, just harvested weeks ago and quickly put on a plane to get to a store near you, is a popular Thanksgiving wine, though some people like to wait till springtime when a light wine goes down nicely in warmer weather.

An interesting story suggests skippin the 08 Noveau, and instead opting for an 07 or even 06 or 05 cru Beaujolais. Cru, referring to the fact that the wine comes from one of the 10 named areas in the region just north of Lyons. Rather than trying to make a wine that can be finished in a few weeks, the cru Beaujolais are apparently more carefully crafted and according to this story, the best crus “….approach the quality of good Burgundy, but for a lot less cash.”

I think I may pick one up this year for Thanksgiving. The full article from SFgate.com is here.