Vive is Beaujolais!

A reason
to party.

ANNABEL COHEN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

F

or wine lovers
everywhere, no
wine enjoys the
fanfare and cele-
bration more than
the famous Beau-
jolais nouveau.
Beaujolais nouveau (new) or
primeur (first-press) is the first
wine of the fall harvest and the
perfect way to toast brisk au-
tumn evenings and inaugurate
the hearth with a crackling
blaze.
Beaujolais is one of the most
popular wines in the world. It
is produced in south-central

Annabel Cohen is a chef cooking
instructor and writer.

France, between the Burgundy commercial director, and his
region of fine wines and the city wife, Julie, are wine aficiona-
of Lyon. Beaujolais nouveau is dos and Orchard Lake resi-
very light and often slightly ef- dents. They usually break out
fervescent. Made from the a couple of bottles of Beaujolais
Gamay grape, which is also nouveau each season. He's no-
grown in California, Beaujolais ticed that more and more
is so popular because it is sim- restaurants are now offering
ple and unpretentious.
Beaujolais nouveau parties.
Steven Lewis, third-genera- "People," he explains, "who
tion owner and executive vice don't usually like rich wines,
president of L & L Wine and who turn their noses up at
Liquor Corporation in Troy, re- Cabernet, like Beaujolais nou-
marks that part of the success veau."
of the Beaujolais nouveau is
Gamay grapes are picked in
due to its softness and "quaffa- late September or early Octo-
bility" or drinkability factor. It ber, and the Beaujolais nou-
goes down easy.
veau just hit the shelves.
Larry August, a television
Because of the different

grapes and vinification tech-
niques, different wines mature
at different ages. Though oth-
er wines wait months, even
years, before maturing enough
for release, Beaujolais wines
peak in their youth.
August says he's wary of
bringing a Beaujolais nouveau
to someone's house when invit-
ed. "If people don't know to
drink it in the next few months,
it could sit there for too long,
and they would think it was
just a bad bottle of wine."
There are those who main-
tain that if you hold a Beaujo-
lais nouveau longer than six-12
months, you'll find that it has

