Matthew Kaner Picks: 5 Beaujolais Nouveau 2021

It’s not very often you get to drink a wine made in the same year that its grapes were picked. In actuality, it only happens once a year on the 3rd Thursday of every November with Beaujolais Nouveau Day. That’s the official release of Beaujolais Nouveau. This fresh and fruity style goes into the bottle quickly after fermentation to capture the joie de vivre of the Beaujolais region and Gamay, its king red grape.

As a straightforward wine that doesn’t require aging, imbibers are encouraged to drink it before the last day of the year. So crush your final bottle before you switch entirely over to Champagne on New Year’s Eve.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

In the 1970s, famous winemaker and businessman Georges Duboeuf turned the above proclamation into a battle cry. Beaujolais Nouveau was initially a wine that cellar workers would drink to celebrate the end of harvest. But Deboeuf sought to expand the harvest celebration by getting the wine into every Parisian cafe. Later, he played an integral role in expanding its popularity into wine bars, cafes, and restaurants across the United States.

Today, as millions of bottles are exported every year, Beaujolais Nouveau is a heartfelt tribute to the hard work vigneron and winemakers have just endured in the passing harvest.

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Some wine producers in California have adopted the Nouveau moniker in recent years, and they too bottle fresh wines of the current vintage. Be sure to check these out: