I Love French Wine And Food - A Red Beaujolais

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Beaujolais region of southeastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local red Beaujolais Cru (high quality) wine.

Among France's eleven wine-growing regions Beaujolais surprisingly ranks number eight in total acreage devoted to vineyards. However, it is one of the best-known wine regions in large part because of the enormously successful Beaujolais Nouveau marketing campaign. I review Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a companion article in this series.

Beaujolais wine is usually, but not always, red. Almost all red Beaujolais wine comes from the Gamay grape which, while grown in many parts of the world, does its best in Beaujolais, in particular in the northern part of the region with its granite soil.

There are no cities in the entire region so tourists will have to be satisfied with the 14 mile (23 kilometer) Beaujolais wine route and its villages. Most of them are. This wine route is home to nine of the Beaujolais grands crus including Chiroubles, reviewed below. Not far from the wine route is the city of of Bourg-en-Bresse, whose suburb Brou includes a magnificent Gothic church and museum with numerous paintings from the 16th to 19th Centuries.

Bresse chickens are said to be among the world's most delicious and most expensive. It is said that when Henry IV stopped in Bresse following a traffic accident and had his first taste of Bresse chickens, he insisted on adding them to the royal menu. Growers must raise these blue-footed birds under strictly defined conditions. A large part of their short life is spent outside, scratching for food. These magnificent birds were the first animals to receive the coveted AOC classification that crowns many great and not-so-great French wines.

Before reviewing the Beaujolais wine and imported cheeses that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region.
Start with Andouillette (Pork Tripe Sausage).
For your second course savor Poulet de Bresse (Bresse Chicken).
And as dessert indulge yourself with Ile Flottante (Floating Island Meringue).

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed
Domaine du Clos Verdy Chiroubles 2004 12.9% alcohol about $14.50

Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. George Boulon is the mayor of the town of Chirboubles. He produces this single vineyard Gamay in a fruity and ripe style. Enjoy it as sipping wine or with grilled fish or roasted chicken breast. And now for the review.

My first meal consisted of a barbecued rib eye steak in a homemade sauce of ketchup, horseradish mustard, garlic, pepper, and fresh lemon juice, accompanied by fried potatoes. The wine was nice and fruity with a pleasant acidity that cut the grease. After finishing the meal, the wine was enjoyable on its own. As you know, Beaujolais wines have little tannins, which is one reason that many people who don't like red wine like Beaujolais. The relative lack of tannins was no problem with this steak.

My next pairing was with a slow-cooked beef stew and potatoes. The wine was very fruity and quite pleasant but not complex or powerful. My final meal involved poulet chasseur (chicken cacciatore) that I made with a lot of care. The wine was round and fruity but short. I wonder if it would have been better with a Bresse chicken.

I tried the Chiroubles with a French Saint-Aubin, a soft cow's milk cheese traditionally packed in a wooden box. This cheese has a creamy brie-like texture and a stronger taste. Unfortunately the cheese gave this wine a bit of a dull aftertaste.

I next tried the wine with an Italian Bel Paese, a mild buttery cheese suggested to accompany fruity wines or to be eaten alone as a snack or a dessert. The wine and the cheese simply didn't gel; they remained two separate entities.

Final verdict. I first started drinking Beaujolais decades ago, in part because I was no fan of tannins. Then I sort of dropped Beaujolais with the exception of the yearly tryst with Beaujolais Nouveau. This bottle was my first Beaujolais Cru wine, and I cannot say that I was particularly impressed. There are ten Beaujoalais Crus. I will taste at least one more somewhere along the line, but not before tasting many, many other French wines.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college.

I Love French Wine and Food - Beaujolais Nouveau

This article treats one of the world's most successful marketing campaigns - the French red wine that arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, Beaujolais Nouveau. At one minute past midnight on the third Thursday in November, this wine is released for sale. Talk about market share, in the next 24 hours over one million cases will be sold. During the coming year, consumers all over the world will buy more than 65 million bottles. There will be about 4 million bottles exported to the United States, and 7 million to Japan and to Germany. About seven hundred thousand bottles will be exported to Italy, which makes a similar wine, Vino Novello, reviewed in our article I Love Italian Wine and Food - Vino Novello (New Wine).

What is exactly is new wine, whether Beaujolais Nouveau, Vino Novello, or some other, similar product? New wine is the first of the harvest, released in early November. The exact date depends on the country. New wines are produced by a special method, carbonic maceration, in which whole grapes ferment in stainless steel tanks, often reaching a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees Centigrade (77 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit). This process lasts for about 5 to 20 days, and may be followed by crushing the grapes, which then undergo traditional fermentation for a few days. The exact procedure varies from one winemaker to another, but the ensuing wine is virtually tannin free. The lack of tannins implies a short shelf life. While you don't have to drink the wine immediately, most people finish the season by Easter. Actually, in the best vintages Beaujolais Nouveau can last until the following year's crop. In theory you could drink Beaujolais Nouveau all year long. Take my advice, don't.

New wines are usually colored bright red or violet. They tend to be fruity, tasting of cherry, strawberry, raspberry, banana, and freshly squeezed grapes, depending on the grape variety used, the production method, and the area in which the grapes are grown. Detractors talk about bubble gum, lollipops, nail polish, and jello. Many feel that new wine tastes of grape juice with alcohol. One thing is certain, if you don't like a given new wine, don't store it away to try it again in two years. It won't improve with time.

Let me present a few tidbits of information before reviewing one of the best Beaujolais Nouveau wines. This wine comes from Beaujolais region of southeastern France and is made from the Gamay grape, which was kicked out of the world-famous, neighboring Burgundy region in 1395. By law, all the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand. Champagne is the only other region of France that forbids mechanical harvesting. While Beaujolais Nouveau was first regulated in 1938, it dates back to ancient times when a somewhat similar wine was produced for slaves. History does not record their reaction. Let's take a look at mine.

Wine Reviewed Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages Nouveau 2006 12.5% about $13
I bought this bottle the day after the release of the 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau (November 16, 2006). It was the most expensive, and presumably the best, of all the new wines available.
Beaujolais Villages Nouveau comes from the Gamay grape variety grown in the Beaujolais region of southwestern France. Gamay grapes contain virtually no tannins, and so many white wine lovers feel at home with them. The wine is considered quite fruity and easy to drink. Unlike some of its inferior competitors, it did not smell of nail polish.

My first pairing of this wine involved chicken in a honey, garlic, and soy sauce. The wine was not very flavorful, but during the course of the meal its flavors increased somewhat. Unfortunately the dominant flavor was bubble gum, but there was a light taste of black fruit.

The next meal involved hamburgers accompanied by potatoes, Moroccan style carrots (spicy, the major spice was cumin), and a spicy tomato and red pepper salsa. The spicy food brought out the wine's fruitiness. In particular, the wine's acidity was a good match for the salsa's acidity.

Then I tried this wine with kube, or kibbe, a Middle-Eastern specialty, balls of ground rice filled with ground meat. They were cooked overnight with potatoes in a somewhat spicy sauce. The wine still smelled of bubble gum after a few days. It didn't add much to the meal, but did get a bit more expressive as it warmed up. (By the way, it was not overchilled.) It went rather well with fresh pineapple, but didn't add anything to the other dessert of thin almond and pistachio biscuits.
I didn't have any French cheeses to accompany the wine, so I had to settle for Italian cheeses. Asiago cheese is nutty-flavored, fairly strong cheese from northeastern Italy. In its presence the wine was moderately fruity. This Beaujolais Nouveau was pleasant but a bit thin in the face of a somewhat overripe Pecorino Toscano from the Tuscany region of Italy.

Final verdict. For many years I have not been a fan of new wines. I taste them every year, and am always willing to change my mind. This overpriced Beaujolais Nouveau gave me no reason to budge an inch. As we said every September (or earlier) when our baseball team was eliminated from the pennant race, wait 'til next year.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine French or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college.

I Love French Wine And Food - A White Beaujolais

If you are looking for fine French wine and food, consider the Beaujolais region of southeastern France. You may find a bargain, and I hope that you'll have fun on this fact-filled wine education tour in which we review a local white Beaujolais wine.

Among France's eleven wine-growing regions Beaujolais perhaps surprisingly ranks number eight in total acreage devoted to the grape. However, it is one of the best-known wine regions to a large degree because of the enormously successful Beaujolais Nouveau marketing campaign. I review Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a companion article in this series.

Beaujolais wine is usually, but not always, red. Beaujolais white wine comes from a variety of grapes including Chardonnay as in the wine reviewed below, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Aligoté.

There are no cities in the entire region so tourists will have to be satisfied with the 14 mile (23 kilometer) Beaujolais wine route and its villages. Most of them are. This wine route is home to nine of the Beaujolais grands crus including Chiroubles, reviewed

in a companion article.

Not far from the wine route is Villars-les-Dombes (population four thousand) with an excellent bird sanctuary, including four hundred species of birds. Continue south to the medieval walled town of Pérouges (population about one thousand) on a hilltop. This town was the setting for the movie The Three Musketeers.

Before reviewing the Beaujolais wine and imported cheeses that we were lucky enough to purchase at a local wine store and a local Italian food store, here are a few suggestions of what to eat with indigenous wines when touring this beautiful region.

Start with Cuisses de Grenouilles (Frogs Legs).

For your second course savor Quenelles de Brochet (Poached Fish Dumplings).

And as dessert indulge yourself with Galettes de Pérouges (Pérouges Pancakes).

OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.

Wine Reviewed

Pisse-Dru Beaujolais Blanc 2004 12.9% alcohol about $10.00

Let's start by quoting the marketing materials. The name "Pisse-Dru" comes from an amusing French vintners expression: when an old vigneron says with a smile of satisfaction on his face, "ça pisse dru", it means that the vintage he has just tasted is to his liking and that the fresh juice of the grape will grow into a perfect and delicious bottle of wine.

Yellow-green color with hints of gold. Fine and fruity on the nose, this wine shows aromas of quince and small yellow plum with some floral nuances. A very pleasant wine with a long finish. Serve chilled with hors d'oeuvres, grilled seafood, cold-cuts, poultry with light cream sauce and cold pasta salads. And now for the review.

My first meal consisted of barbecued chicken with potatoes cooked in chicken fat and green beans in tomato sauce. The wine had a nice tingling taste and was refreshingly acidic. It really cut the grease of this quite greasy meal.

My next pairing was with a commercial chicken pot pie perked up by a Chinese hot sauce. This Beaujolais Blanc was once again refreshingly acidic, light and fruity. But it was fairly short and overpowered by a hot sauce that wasn't very hot. The wine had no such problem with poppy seed cake.

My final meal was an omelet with brown mushrooms, local provolone cheese, and the fixings. I was surprised and somewhat disappointed that the wine was quite light when paired with a mild-tasting omelet.

I next tried this wine with an Italian Bel Paese, a mild buttery cheese that people suggest to accompany fruity wines or to be eaten alone as a snack or a dessert. This pairing was a relative success; the cheese seemed to soften the wine's acid and bring out its fruit.

My last tasting was with a French Saint-Aubin, a soft cow's milk cheese traditionally packed in a wooden box. This cheese has a creamy brie-like texture and a stronger taste. The cheese was a little strong for the wine.

Final verdict. Like most people I know, I have a limited budget. This wine was fine for the price. It doesn't go well with everything, most wines don't. But it goes very well with food that I really like (barbecued chicken and greasy potatoes), and I am planning to buy it again.

Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on computers and the Internet, but to be honest, he would rather just drink fine Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods. He teaches classes in computers at an Ontario French-language community college. Presently his wine websites are http://www.theworldwidewine.com and http://www.theitalianwineconnection.com