MAIN Wine Europe France Beaujolais

No matter when the harvest begins, on the third Thursday of November the world is treated to the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

More than half of all Beaujolais, produced from the Gamay Noir grape, is best as a new wine. These Nouveau wines are served chilled and should be opened from late November through the holidays.

Low in tannins and very close to white wine in taste because of the way it is processed, the better brands are excellent wines to serve to white wine drinkers who want to explore a red wine.

For the serious wine drinker, the whole Beaujolais experience has soured a bit since the hyper-marketing of the Nouveau wines, resulting in overproduction and quite a few inferior wines. While they quickly ferment, often low quality wines have come to dominant people's perception of Beaujolais.

However, there are still wine makers in the region who produced top quality wines that are good all year long and age well.

If you want a really good wine from the region look for reviews of the wines produced in the crus .... such as Moulin-à-Vent or Chénas. They are actually very good, affordable and will retain their light fruity overtones through to the next year's release and beyond.

For the curious or detail-oriented, Beaujolais is technically a part of the Burgundy wine region, and situated between Macon and Lyon.

More about Beaujolais wines & wineries around the Web:

Into Wine Exploring Beaujolais - From the Romans planting vines on roadsides, through the latest info on the region, this site is a perfect introduction to Beaujolais. A pronunciation guide helps you put the accents in the right places and links lead you to more in depth reviews. Be sure to stop by at the 10 Fascinating Facts About Beaujolais Nouveau that every wine lover should know.

Beaujolais - The tourism site for the region offers plenty of information on the wines grown in the 12 appellations. There are vintage charts and in-depth reviews of each area, photos, videos and related guides if you're planning a trip to taste the wines in their home terroir.