Nouveau, Plato, and the Westminster Kennel Club

Judging Beauloias Nouveau is just like watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on ESPN.

In the Best of Show competition Beagles compete against Huskies and French Poodles.  How do they decide one winner?  Well, as I understand it, each dog is judged against the perfect specimen of its own breed – much like Plato’s Theory of Forms (for you philosophy majors that stumbled across this blog by googling “Plato – Beaujolais Nouveau -Westminster Kennel Club).

Everyone at my party had a different opinion of which wine was the Best in Show.  There were a couple of very good true Beaujolais wines, two solid Italian wines, and many people also liked the Primeur Syrah.  So what would Plato do? (start making those WWPD bracelets).

In the spirit of Nouveau (a decidedly French word) I eliminated the Italian Novello wines – even though they were probably the best wines – and selected Georges Duboeuf Gamay Nouveau as the winner.  The Gamay Nouveau was light, juicy, delicious, one-dimensional – the perfect Nouveau to sip while sitting in a cave watching shadows .

If anyone wants to argue the point then I dare you to bring a bottle of Nouveau, or “Nouveau”, over to my house and change my opinion. Bring some crackers and cheese too.

 

Art Nouveau

In case you forgot, the release of Beaujolais Nouveau is next Thursday.  This arrival of the “cookie dough” of wine is one of my favorite events.  Even the label garners some international hoopla.  Many (you know who you are) would argue that the label is the most interesting part about the wine. Not me.

Cool label.  I’ll let the Dubœuf PR department take it from here ….

“It’s a bold new pairing for Beaujolais. French wine producer Georges Duboeuf has collaborated with renowned Brooklyn artist Michael McLeer, a.k.a. Kaves, to create Nouveau Expression, a celebration of creativity, self expression and enjoying the moment, to coincide with Duboeuf’s release of the 2011 Beaujolais Nouveau.  A multi-talented artist specializing in graffiti, tattoo, music and film, Kaves designed a unique, graffiti-inspired urban celebration for the 2011 label.

“I wanted to create a celebration in a neighborhood that could be anywhere in the world with bright energy and a positive vibe,” said Kaves. “The corner of LIVE and LOVE is where I want to be. It’s a place where people live in the moment and love life. Beaujolais Nouveau is a celebration of friends and wine. My painting is a celebration of life. The two are a perfect pair.”

Le Nouveau encore

Pullthecork started out with the Nouveau release in 2009.  102 blog entries and 15,000 hits later it’s time for the Beaujolais Nouveau party again. I know that the release of Nouveau is a marketing scam by the French but I want to be scammed every once in a while.  Nouveau is light, delicious, and easy to drink.  Exactly what I want my blog to be.

I always buy from George Dubœuf – the king of Beaujolais – because he’s the king and because of how cool it is that the o and the e get stuck together when he spells his name. 

I also buy a couple other French nouveau and always try one from Ontario if the LCBO gets one.  This year Reif Estates releases The Fool Gamay Nouveau – so they are the first winery in Ontario to put a 2010 wine on the shelves.  Well done!

The benchmark - Duboeuf

Here’s the entire list of Nouveau available in Ontario Thursday.

France

• Mommessin Beaujolais Nouveau,  $13.95
• Duboeuf Gamay Nouveau, $8.95
• Primeur Catalan Syrah Merlot,  $9.95 
• Drouhin Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau, $14.95
• Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau, $14.95 

Italy

• Mezzacorona Novio Vino Novello, $9.95 
• Negrar Novello del Veneto, $9.95 

Ontario

• Reif Estates The Fool Gamay Nouveau, $10.95   

Say it out loud!

The Red Brick Café Wines are Great this December and it’s not just how they taste. They are also fun to say out loud – not usually a selection criteria for me – it just happened.

White Wine

Strewn Riesling / Gewurztraminer from Niagara.

Riesling is my favorite white wine but really what is great about this wine is that I can’t help but smile when I say Gewürztraminer (you have to click here to hear it). Thank goodness for the internet.  Could anyone really pronounce it based on the dictionary help (ɡəˈvʏɐtstʁaˈmi:nɐ)?  Seriously, does anyone consider that helpful?  Personally I like to say it in a lower guttural German sound or yell it like Dana Carvey and Steven Carell in Germans Who Say Nice Things.  That just make the  funnier when you know that the translation of Gewürztraminer is “perfumed Traminer”. Cute huh? Also, I woüld like to üse the ümlaüt whenever I remember (ü).

Red Wines

Georges DuBoeuf Beaujolais-Villages from France 2008

Georges DuBoeuf is the King of Beaujolais wines and his Beaujolais-Villages is a step up from Beaujolais vin ordinaire. This is a chance to practice your pretentious French accent.  DuBoeuf, as we all know, really just means “of Boeuf” (Kenn’s regular language joke)– the French have such a way with names.  This Beaujolais is smooth and very quaffable.  You could easily gulp this wine if you were in a hurry.

Bodegas Castaño Hécula Monastrell from Spain 2007

This is also fun to say at a wine tasting– “Now try the Hécula is from Yecla”.  Yecla is a great value wine region in Southeastern Spain near the larger region of Jumilla.  It is a great wine with manly tannins but she’ll like it too! The Monastrell grape is the Spanish version of the French Mourvedre so it probably will remind you of a rustic wine from the Southern Rhône region.  Hécula from Yecla? – heck ya.