Vintage Story
Epistemological epiphany:
Life must be lived forwards,
but can only be understood backwards
Mercifully, life may be enjoyed sideways!
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Full Moon: November, 2005. Allen Dale Olson a/k/a the Pontiff of Palate, Story Inn’s Wine Connoisseur. Copyright 2005 Story Bed & Breakfast, LLP, d/b/a Story Inn, all rights reserved. |
LUNACY IN THE BISTROS
It’s hard to beat the sheer lunacy occurring at midnight along the southern border of Burgundy on the Wednesday before the third Thursday in November and during the rest of the day in the rest of the world. Precisely at midnight, the vintners of Beaujolais are allowed to release their first pressings of the new harvest, and thirsty revelers everywhere outdo one another to be among the first to quaff it.
New York importers used to bring it in by Concorde. One London distributor caused the flight patterns of his city to change because he hired a small plane to land his kegs on the Thames. His pilot, something of a reveler himself, flew the little bird under the London Bridge as he landed. Indianapolis wholesalers have had kegs parachuted into the city.
Otherwise sleepy little Beaujolais villages such as Fleurie, Julianas, and Chiroubles become military-type encampments as the big day approaches. Toward midnight, village squares and surrounding meadows are floodlit so all trucks and helicopters can be loaded for departure immediately as the witching hour strikes. Customers line the superhighway interchanges across Switzerland, southern Germany, and all of France awaiting the trucks. Once my wife and I had our lunch held up in the Lygon Arms, one of Britain’s most prestigious Midlands hotels, because the Beaujolais Nouveau chopper had not yet arrived from Heathrow.
Whether in Tokyo or Bangkok, Sydney or San Francisco, there is cachet to the Big Event. So it will be in Story, Indiana come November 18 when we tap our keg.
Is the wine worth all the fuss? It is if you love a party. It is if you enjoy a fruity, tasty, easy-to-drink beverage with a kick. Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape, a grape so out of favor with producers of noble wines, it was banned in France in the 15th century – except for Beaujolais where the wine gods gave it a home. The gamay nowhere else makes a wine worthy of attention, and the first pressings give us a good notion of what the finished product will be like. Not the new stuff; that’ll go sour – second fermentation – in a matter of months; but the real pressings after the run off has hit the markets.
The village wines remain among the best wine values available; the best of the Beaujolais are a delightful alternative to the cabernet sauvignons and pinot noirs of acclaim, though their shelf life seldom exceeds a few years. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, and Napa may house the kings and queens, but in November the gamay becomes an emperor.
Vintage Story is an e-newsletter authored by Ole Olson and published by the Story Inn, and is available free of charge to all who appreciate good wine. Vintage Story is published at each full moon. The author and the Story Inn specifically authorize the republication, reprinting and circulation of any issue Vintage Story so long as due credit is given to the author and to the Story Inn (which holds the copyright).
If any newspaper or website desires to make use of any issue of Vintage Story, we do request that you notify us. Thanks, and here's to your health!
