There’s a “limited edition” red wine that we love this time of year and it costs less than $20 a bottle. The story behind the wine is what makes it memorable. Especially in 2020.
Since the 1800s in the Beaujolais region of eastern France, each year’s vintage is celebrated with Beaujolais Nouveau, the first wine bottled within weeks after harvesting the Gamay grape. It can only be released for sale one minute after midnight on the third Thursday in November, otherwise known as Beaujolais Nouveau Day around the world. It’s the law. The French law.
The light-bodied wine is deliciously fruity and spicy. Because of short fermentation time using a traditional method called carbonic maceration that uses the whole bunch including the skins, the wine must be consumed within six months of bottling – the reason distributors around the world scramble for their shipments.
So, when I saw Everson Royce’s Instagram that the young wine from the 2020 harvest was in, I called post haste because I knew their stash might already be gone. Luck was with me – there were only a few bottles left.
“We were lucky to get our five cases,” Joe told me. Some distributors haven’t received their orders, he said, perhaps due to Covid-19 restrictions.
As we shelter at home, we will appreciate what we have – in more ways than one. But if by chance I spot a random bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau on a store shelf, I’ll nab it because that will be the last of it. For at least another year.
This is your country, and it’s up to you to save it.” – English translation of a saying in Taiwan
Washing Hands + Wearing a Mask + Social Distancing = Saving Lives