Peace! Love! Et Le Beaujolais Est Arivée!

Hooray!

November 19th heralded one of my happiest, hippiest Beaujolais Days, THANKS to the families Duboeuf and Deutsch, the brilliance of M. Young Communications, a gathering of great friends, Bistro Bagatelle's fabulous food, and one of the finest Beaujolais vintages in 50 years.

I am one of thousands who eagerly await and thoroughly celebrate the Third Thursday of November -- the day on which Beaujolais Nouveau is released from its homeland at 12:01 a.m., and is jetted around the world so as to be fêted in ways that are fresh, vibrant, fun.

This year's release was especially exuberant:

The celebration sported a '60s-style Love / Peace / RootStock theme in homage to Woodstock's 40th Anniversary. And it kicked off a week-long program of nationwide tastings that coincide with food drives...all of which are listed at DuBoeuf Nouveau.

It also marked nearly 30 years of Beaujolais education and celebration for me.

Twenty-seven year ago, while at Friends of WINE magazine, I had stayed with the Duboeuf family in Romaneche-Thorins, and had written Profiles of Beaujolais from their premises.

This was WINE the way I loved it most -- earthy, alive, fruity...and, most importantly, linked to family.

I spent every spare moment with Fabienne and Franck DuBoeuf, who are my age -- comparing notes on work and life, cooking, running through fields and vineyards with assorted dogs, looking at stars. But there weren't that many spare moments.

By 7:30 a.m., when Georges claimed that our palates were at their most awake and astute, we would taste our way through Beaujolais -- visiting small family growers in the evocatively named villages of Saint-Amour, Juliènas, Chenas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. By midnight, we would wind down from delicious dinners with the likes of Paul Bocuse and others.

Of course, it was incumbent upon us to spit if we were to make it to breakfast okay. And Georges remains my best spitting mentor to this day.

And while intervening years and careers took me temporarily away from the wine world, Beaujolais remained close to my heart always.

I just didn't know how to put my hands on the articles I'd written back in the day....

But Voila! A recent trip to the familial storage unit yielded a treasure trove that included Profiles in Beaujolais, the tastevin I had used for tasting, and assignment letters to young wine writers like Terry Theise and Robert Parker, who were then just getting started, if you can believe....

Anyhow, I hope you will join me in refreshing these memories...and in raising a toast to Peace, Love, Flower Power and the fact that Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arivée!!

Warmly and looking forward,

Wendy Dubit, The Senses Bureau