2012 Chateau Moulin Favre - beaujolais nouveau

Last night I tried a fairly inexpensive bottle of Beaujolais along with dinner. A great part about this time of year is influx the relatively cheap Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is a type of red wine made (usually) from the Gamay grape in the French winemaking region of Beaujolais (but officially part of Burgundy.) Although some Beaujolais bottles are a cut above the rest (like the Cru Beaujolais - more on that later,) the Beaujolais Nouveaux are made by the millions of cases and are traditionally shipped and enjoyed in November.

The Gamay grape has a low amount of tannins, and as a result makes a lighter, fruity wine that I personally find very approachable. When opened and aerated, the wine foamed up a little bit and stayed that way throughout the short life of the bottle. It had a very fruity nose - as expected - and was rather sweet. It was unobtrusive, light, and airy. The color was a bright ruby red when held up to the light. I had this with a light pasta dish (pasta with peas, shallots, crumbled bacon, chives, cooked in a reduced chicken stock.) It would pair well with salads or lighter fare.

About four years ago I had a delicious bottle of 2005 Georges duBoeuf Cru Beaujolais from the village of Chenas, which is much different from the annual Beaujolais Nouveau deliveries. These types of Beaujolais - the Cru Beaujolais - are heavier in character and have a much longer cellar life than the Beaujolais Nouveaux. I let it cellar for five years and brought it to some friends' place and drank it with some delicious homemade pasta bolognese. As for a bottle of Nouveau, I would pretty much drink it immediately. The real attraction of this wine is that it is fruity and fresh and inexpensive enough to not feel guilty about having often. I would not cellar this wine for more than a year because in that time, it would lose the freshness that makes it interesting.