That is right...this week is all about Beaujolais Nouveau !!
🤔 What is Beaujolais Nouveau, I hear you ask and where does it comes from?
🍷 In very simplistic terms, Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine from the wine region depicted in the map stretching from just south of the town of Macon in the Maconnais region to the tip of the city of Lyon (see map below).
Source: Wine Folly
🍷 The red wine is made from the Gamay grape. The wine is sold 'vin de primeur' which means it is a wine permitted by the Appellation D'Origine Controllee, to be able to be sold in the same year that it was harvested.
Ultimately, that the designated region allows the consumers to drink a 2023 red wine in 2023! 🙌
🍷 The key behind this great wine, is that it is only fermented for a short period of time (i.e. a few weeks prior to being bottled and sold). It is always released for sale on the 3rd Thursday in November - and that is TODAY!
Why is that special?
🍷In essence, it gives us wine geeks, boffins, communicators and most importantly consumers, the opportunity to assess a 2023 red wine from France!
🍷The style is 'simple' (believe it or not, that is a technical term in wine exams). It really means to the consumer that it is only primary fruit flavour generated. There has been no time for the wine to develop in the winery with ageing so there will be no tertiary notes coming through.
🍷 This wine is likely to have notes of raspberry, cranberry, sour cherry, loganberry, fig and banana. It will be spritely and pronounced with a lot of youthful exuberance - very expressive. Quite possibly some carbonic maceration type notes of candyfloss or bubblegum too.
🤓 Beware: Nerdy Bit on Beaujolais Nouveau and Gamay
🍷 The Gamay grape is an early budding and ripening varietal. It is not particularly vigorous but it is fertile and yields need to be controlled particularly with the climate of the region, in order to ensure depth of character and flavour profile in the grapes. Thus it is best pruned relatively vigorously but also keeping in mind the susceptibility of sunburn - so canopy management key to maintaining good levels of harvest!
🍷Around 75% of Gamay is produced in France, yet there are also other regions that grow it too and indeed it is a big percentage of Switzerland's production, it's also found in Canada, Turkey and even the UK too!
🌍 In fact, the Beaujolais region itself, produces an extremely large amount of wine, in fact around half of the rest of the Burgundy put together with around 96% of that production being Gamay.
🌱 Traditionally, Gamay in the region has been 'bush trained' - thus keeping it close to the ground and at low levels so that it is sheltered from the Mistral winds of the region and this is still used on the steeper slopes (especially in the North of the region).
🍷Beaujolais Nouveau is just one style of Beaujolais and 'class' or level. The whole area of Beaujolais comes under Beaujolais AOC (72 communes) which is the regional appellation. Beaujolais-Villages AOC (38 villages) is typically better quality wines than Beaujolais AOC (typically higher levels of fruit ripeness and achieved mostly in the northern part of the region). There is then an additional level higher - Beaujolais Cru - which is 10 individual crus (their own AOC in the northern part of the region only).
🍷So whilst we are mostly talking about Beaujolais Nouveau TODAY, why not compare and contrast a Beaujolais of different styles and levels too - the top Beaujolais Crus - are Brouilly AOC, Chiroubles AOC, Fleurie AOC, Moulin-A-Vent AOC, Morgon AOC, Saint-Amour AOC, Julienas AOC, Regine AOC, Cote-de-Brouilly AOC and Chenas AOC.
🤔 So what should I eat with Beaujolais Nouveau?
This is actually a great food wine as it goes with a lot of dishes. You could even see this paired with Turkey and that is giving away a little secret of what is to come in the '12 Bottles of Christmas'.
White meats or a roast pork chop would be a great balancing act. I would have no issue pairing this with salmon or tuna either or indeed most vegetarian dishes that do not have too much of a heavy base flavour profile.
Give it a try and tell me how you paired your Beaujolais Nouveau....
For more fun with Beaujolais take a look at my funny short video today @thenorthern
🍷WINE REVIEW OF THE WEEK🍷- TAMADA SAPERAVI 2020, Georgia
As part of our continued UNUSUAL WINE SERIES, we have again stayed in Georgia but this time to explore a Red Wine:
🍇 SAPERAVI means DYE in Georgian - referring to what is its really deep black skin and pinkish juice - it is a very old varietal from SW Georgia, historically known as Meskheti.
🍇 It is mid budding, late ripening and really has a winter hardiness about it, with it being winter ready for those cold, dark, damp winters and is drought resistant too in summer months.
🍇 Saperavi is the most widely planted dark skinned varietal in Georgia, with its rich, dark ruby red deep colour, high tannins, high acidity and full bodied outlook. This is not a wine to be taken lightly.
🍇 With some oaking to create a vanilla, velvety finish having been aged, this brings out a lot of dark fruits - blackberries, black cherries, blueberry compote, black mulberry and that hint of vanilla.
🍇 This is a great example, and the joy is that Saperavi has hit the scene in the UK quite recently but you will find it stocked in most independent wine shops so recommend hunting one out to give it a try, especially if you like your full bodied reds.
🍇 It's rich, its bold, its robust and it has character....this also means you need to match that with food too - so look for big flavoured food profiles - i.e. your red meats or steaks of this world, or if non-meat, then look at strong mushroom dishes or a rich vegetable stew which has depth to mirror this wine.
🍇 This bottle fwiw was at House of Townend and can be bought for £10.49 -> so it is not going to break the bank more generally to try a different grape varietal and style.
📈MARKETS IN BRIEF 📉️
On the week (as at 10:10 16/11) changes:
EQUITIES: ⬆️ FTSE 100 up 1.15% ; ⬆️ DAX up 3.43% ; ⬆️ S&P500 up 2.71% ; ⬆️ Nikkei 225 up 3.85% ; ⬆️ Dow Jones up 2.58%
COMMODITIES: ⬆️ Brent Oil up 1.26% ; ⬆️ Crude Oil WTI up 0.99% ; ⬆️ Gold up 0.77% ; ⬆️ Silver up 5.15% ; ⬆️ Copper up 3.05%
BONDS (in yield terms): ⬇️ UK 2yrs lower 0.0865% ; ⬇️UK 10yrs lower 0.1045% ; ⬇️ German 10yrs lower 0.024% ; ⬇️US 2yrs lower 0.054% ; ⬇️US 5yrs lower 0.037% ; ⬇️US 10yrs lower 0.033%
The leading data release this week has been the US and UK CPI data. If you missed it, then you will know from the above that riskier assets (i.e. equities) have had a new lease of life. Just look at the upticks above vs bonds (arguably safe havens) falling in yield terms.
This is because the October core and headline CPI in the US (the inflation prints) came in 10bps below expectations (i.e. inflation fell 0.1% below expectations). That is good news for the FOMC who will then potentially continue to hold interest rates at current levels for longer, believing this is filtering through to the real economy and reducing inflation. This is why equities are buoyant.
On the topic of inflation, this was also true of the latest October UK inflation print this week which showed headline inflation dropping to +4.6% YoY vs previously up at 6.7%. Again, you can hear the relief from the consumers from here, even 'core' and services inflation fell too. All good signs that we are at or nearing the end of the hiking cycle in the UK for interest rates.
So those who have equities should have seen a bounce in their portfolio valuations this week as a surge in equities has helped recover some of those bond losses on the week.
Longer term, I expect the US and UK to diverge somewhat with the US continuing to hold a higher inflation rate than target (2%) and therefore, likely to consider hiking in the second part of next year (risk is they hold rates from here onwards). Versus that of the UK, where I am going to struggle to see more interest rate hikes and therefore would look to lock in savings rates at these levels where possible in the UK (i.e. I do not see savings rates getting much higher - so look for the offers now if not already done so!).
(Note: Asset Allocation Piece comes out monthly, as it is a macro outlook / investment profile.)
🗞️ LEADING WINE HEADLINES 🗞
WINNER: 📖 Armenia fizz is coming of age
Fascinating to see the development of different areas of the world able to be showcased on a global scale. It is also ties in very nicely with my exploration on a personal level to find unusual grape varietals and wine regions that we do not see copious amounts from in the UK. Hopefully we might be able to see some of these wineries in more detail in the coming series of The Andy and Olly Show Wine Podcast (search Apple, Amazon and Spotify or click here for previous Series).
UPCOMING EVENTS / ANNOUNCEMENTS:
💥 SHEFFIELD: For those living in the Sheffield area in the UK, there is certainly Good News on the horizon and there will be an announcement forthcoming in the next few weeks over the location of a Monthly Wine Tasting !!
CHEERS!
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