Red Wine and White Meat

The fourth Thursday of November will always be Thanksgiving but if you're an oenophile, it's the third Thursday that you look forward to. That's when Beaujolais Nouveau, the vinicultural herald of the holiday season, is released. Let's take a tour of Beaujolais before returning to this specific and festive wine.

Beaujolais, (boh-zhu-LAY), like most French wines, is named for the region of France, not the grape, from which it emanates. Beaujolais is a 35 mile strip of granite hills, containing over 55,000 acres of vineyards, between the towns of Lyons and Macon in eastern France.

It forms the southernmost part of France's world renowned Burgundy region. Beaujolais is made from the gamay grape. It is a light, fruity, and inexpensive red wine that is ordinarily drunk young.

Generally, there are three quality levels in Beaujolais. The first is your generic Beaujolais. This wine can be a mixture of grapes from any number of vineyards, mostly in the southern part of the district. This is your basic, everyday Beaujolais.

Next, in the northern part of the territory are thirty-nine villages distinguished by superior vineyards. Beaujolais-Villages, as it will appear on the bottle, is made from grapes from any one or a number of these thirty-nine communes. Beaujolais-Villages is noticeably more concentrated than regular Beaujolais and for a dollar or two more a bottle, is well worth the additional outlay.

Finally, the pinnacles of Beaujolais are ten specific cruz, from villages whose vineyards are considered to be the best. They are: Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgan, Regnie, Saint-Amour, and the venerable Moulin a Vent.

Wine from any of these villages is made from grapes derived only from within the boundaries of that village. Each village will have a slightly different character or style but all will be of an even higher concentration and quality than the more diffuse Beaujolais-Villages.

The wine bottle will display the name of the village only and will not publicize the words "Beaujolais" or "Beaujolais-Villages" except maybe in the fine print.

For those who wish to push the quality curve to the max, there is Moulin a Vent, the creme de la creme of Beaujolais. Moulin a Vent, (moo-han-nah-VAHN), which gets its name from the historic windmill located in the vineyard, is considered the "king" of Beaujolais.

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