Today is Beaujolais Nouveau Day!

Beaujolais Nouveau. Its name literally means 'new Beaujolais.' This wine is named for the village of Beaujeu in France, which is a small region just south of Burgundy.

On the third Thursday of each November, which is November 16th this year, France releases Beaujolais Nouveau wine to the world.

The 'new' part of this wine is due to the fact that the grapes used to make this wine are picked from the vineyards just a couple of months prior to its release! That's compared to most wines that spend at least a year or more going through the fermentation and aging process before being bottled and shipped to market.  But Beaujolais Nouveau gets from the vineyard to you in about two months!

Word has it that this wine was originally produced for the harvest workers in France to immediately thank them for all their hard work just after harvest was complete. But now its production is somewhere between 30-60 million bottles so that the entire world can enjoy.

Although there are more than 100 Beaujolais Nouveau festivals held each year in the Beaujolais region, the 'Les Sarmentelles' multi-day festival is said to be the biggest and most famous for celebrating the release of Beaujolais Nouveau. The festival includes music, dancing, fireworks and, yes, plenty of wine.

This wine is produced entirely from handpicked Gamay grapes and because it is so new, it is very fresh and fruity. Many describe Beaujolais Nouveau as having flavors of candied cherries, strawberries, red plum, bananas and and even bubble gum.

Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be enjoyed young, not critiqued. So, pick up a bottle soon and give it a slight chill. Then raise a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau to the French harvest workers. It's Beaujolais Nouveau Day! Cheers!

A Brief History of Carménère - Part 3 Fun Facts

Fun facts about Carménère

Here, courtesy of the Wines of Chile organization, are a few fun facts about Carménère:

• Chile has the most Carménère under vine in the world, at 10,332 ha/25,530 acres in 2021. By comparison, France has just 80 ha/197 acres. DNA analyses carried out in New Zealand in 2006 showed that several vines planted as Cabernet Franc are in fact Carménère. It is also present in Veneto, Italy, plus a few vineyards in China.

• Carménère is derived from the French carmin (crimson), due to the color the leaves turn in autumn. Other accepted names include Grande Vidure, Carmenelle, Cabernelle, Grant Carmenet, Carbouet and Cabernet Gernischt (which is only used in China).

• A cross between Cabernet Franc and Gros Cabernet, it belongs to the group of pyrazine-rich varieties such as the aforementioned grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This is what gives it its ashy, spicy, jalapeño-inflected character.

• The sunny terroirs of Chile break down the pyrazines and bring out the fruity character of the variety when ripe. This character is generally to be found in   Colchagua and Cachapoal. The style typically also displays good body, a velvety texture and high alcohol content.  

• The latest trend is to enhance the pyrazine-driven aspects of the grape’s character with less body and lower alcohol levels than previous versions.

A Brief History of Carménère - Part 2

Last time we took a brief look at the history of Carménère, thanks to the Wines of Chile organization. When we left off, Chile was faced with the question of what to do with the fact that an estimated one-third of what had been thought to be Merlot was actually Carménère. Again, thanks to the Wines of Chile, here’s how they proceeded.

The first true bottle of Carménère to appear on the market in 1996 was the Carmen Grand Vidure 1994, made by the oenologist Álvaro Espinoza. Just two years earlier, it been harvested as a Merlot, also under the name Grande Vidure. One year later, the first officially designated Carménère appeared, a 1996 vintage from Viña Santa Inés. Though cautious at first, a growing number of Chilean wineries steadily became persuaded of Carménère’s potential as a flagship variety. In the 1990s, New World countries had embraced the concept of flagship single varieties such as Malbec in Argentina, Shiraz in Australia and Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand.

Chile’s Servicio de Agricultura y Ganadería (Department of Agriculture & Livestock), which gathers and publishes wine industry statistics, unwittingly acted as a catalyst: for a wine to be labelled Carménère, it decreed that the entire vineyard had to be registered as planted with the variety. That decision, along with the enthusiasm of the wineries, led to a rapid expansion of the grape. The number of hectares planted to Carménère increased rapidly, peaking in 2014 with a record planting of 13,750 hectares (almost 34,000 acres), a number that would later stabilize at the current figure of 10,332 hectares (around 25,500 acres) in 2021. This means that today, old-vines Chilean Carménère, some planted as far back as 80 years ago, sit side by side with new vines in the same regions – with a handful still labelled Merlot!

In the process, Carménère rose from near worldwide oblivion following the phylloxera crisis that swept through the Médoc to representing a country on the global stage: Carménère became synonymous with Chile.

Next time, in the third part of this overview of Carménère, we’ll look a a few fun fact of this interesting grape that is now synonymous with Chile.

A Brief History of the Wine Grape Carménère

Thanks to the Wines of Chile, a non-profit, private organization of Chilean wine producers dedicated to promoting the quality and image of Chilean wines, here is a brief history of the Carménère (kar-men-nair) grape.

In 1994, fewer than 10 hectares (less than 25 acres) of Carménère remained in Médoc, Bordeaux, a region where it had been as important as Cabernet Franc in the 19th century. Outside the august circles of ampelographic experts (those involved in the science concerned with the identification and classification of grapevines), few knew it even existed. The aforementioned year turned out to be important: it saw a visit to Chile by French ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot from the École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier for a viticultural congress in Santiago. On a tour of the Viña Carmen vineyard in Alto Jahuel, Maipo, Boursiquot identified Carménère vines that had up until then been mistaken for Merlot.

Three years earlier, another French expert had also expressed doubts about Chilean Merlot, noting that some vineyards were ripening three weeks later than they ought, and the plants turned a distinctive crimson red in the fall. But it wasn’t until Boursiquot’s discovery that Carménère began to be distinguished properly.

Known as Carménère in Médoc, a name derived from the French carmin (crimson), the variety has also borne the names Grande Vidure, Carmenelle, Cabernelle, Grant Carmenet, Carbouet and Cabernet Gernischt (used exclusively in China). News of its resurrection in the vineyards of Chile caused a stir across the winemaking world and marked the beginning of a revival of a grape previously thought to be almost extinct.

The Chilean wine industry got to work and started to assess the variety’s potential. According to a paper on the history of Carménère published by Philippo Pszczólkowski at the Universidad de Talca, an estimated one-third of what had been thought to be Merlot in 1994 (about 3,500 out of 10,000 hectares) was actually Carménère, meaning that in good conscience it could no longer be labelled Merlot. So, what was to be done? We’ll look into that next time. Cheers!

How to Choose a Good Chianti

"Black Rooster Label Chianti" by bobu is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Chianti is a great wine to enjoy with an Italian meal. Whether it is spaghetti and meatballs, sausages or pizza, a Chianti is a great pairing. And it's not hard to find a good one for a very reasonable price.

Chianti is a region within Tuscany in central Italy, between Florence and Siena. And it produces the best known of the Italian wines. While the wines have been around since the Middle Ages, the Chianti region was officially established in the 18th century (1716 to be exact). But it wasn't until 1967 that the Chianti Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) was created. Then, in 1984, the region reached Italy's highest level of wines, the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). This is important because DOC wines are the most commonly found wines in Italy, while DOCG wines only cover a handful of Italian wines with the highest of quality.

So, again, Chianti is a region, not a grape.  The wines of Chianti are made from the Sangiovese grape. Local laws require Chianti to have at least 70% Sangiovese with the more prestigious Chianti Classico having at least 80% Sangiovese.

When shopping for Chianti, look for the black rooster (gallo nero in Italian) on the neck of the bottle.  The black rooster indicates it is authentic Chianti Classico, making it easy to distinguish from the more common Chianti.

Some may also know of Chianti as the wine bottle in the straw basket.  While this was a distinguishing trait of Chianti in the past, most producers are now using the traditional styled wine bottle. But, if you're trying to create an Italian look for your meal, a bottle of Chianti with a straw basket base will certainly do. But if you're looking for a nicer bottle of Chianti, go with the rooster and one with DOCG on the bottle. Cheers!