Well, I do this every year, so you all should be used to it by now. Third Thursday–a day I’ve spent in Nice many times–rolls around and I use it as an opportunity to drink LAST YEAR’s Beaujolais Nouveau. Because that’s about the end of their PRIME. Yes, I’ve dranken them older than that–and often they are quite good–and naturally I have experienced the current release de rigueur more times than I care to remember. My theory on Nouveau is to purchase it when it arrives, wait to enjoy it starting about April or May–after it has had a few months to settle down–pop a few chillers over the summer, and then find a straggler to drink at age 1. In my opinion, this is the perfect window for nouveau–and this year is no different.

Beautiful light pink-purple through-and-through with nary a hint of garnet. The vibrant, shallow fruit-forwardness trademark on fête has deepened to a far more candied candy: dark Welch’s and cherry lollipop on the nose. A little cellar-floor on this one, but no enduring funk or even tomato-vine or barnyard. If you let your nose lick it all the way to the middle, you might even imagine a soft chocolate core melting slightly latex-y and with slight woodiness.

Drinking this at 65°, it is flush with ripe fruit, round and full, no weirdness, no awkward essence of (lack of) age, no *green-wine* characteristics at ALL. It is full, fruity and dense–even sophisticated–sweet and sexy on entry, chalky and dry with amazing acid over the top, concluding in a tasty finish of Charmin-soft tannin.

This wine is absolute perfection RIGHT NOW. In fact, I might even consider drinking it next summer. A pristine example of the style. And I don’t need to tell you the trick to Beaujolais Nouveau is to find the GOOD examples. There’s a LOT of total crap out there every Third Thursday.

2019 GEORGES DUBOEF Beaujolais Nouveau France 13.0

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