Calling all wine buffs

[Seafront Plodder]

I've recently been given a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2005 by someone who came to dinner. (this person obviously hates me...)

Now my experience of this stuff extends to the fact that it tastes like rancid camel piss, (don't ask) and was only ever drunk by pretentious twats in poncy wine bars November Circa 1989.

So I need to know...

1) Is it likely to still be drinkable (I suspect I already know the answer to this one)

2) Does it improve with age? :frigginhugerolleyes:

3) Should I wait until I have chips and use it then?

[Sweder]

Not sure what the formal response is to this one.

How about this tried and trusted method, once told to me by an old codger fishing on the banks of Lake Conroe. I was catching grass carp - big buggers, over 20lb a pop - when this old boy as black as burned wood came strolling along the bank.

'What y'all fishin fer there?' he asked, rubbing the curled grey whiskers on his heavily wrinkled chin.
'Errr, grass carp mate. I'm not keeping them - you can't cook 'em.'
'Suuuure you can cook 'em' he says, his one reminaing front tooth slipping out over ancient gums in a rather scary grin.
'I'll tell ya how t'cook them suckers.
Ya takes yer fish, guts him, cleans him and wraps him in foil.
Then take a big ol' piece o' mesquite wood that's soaked in fresh warder overnight.
Nail that fish t'the wood and place the whole thing inta th' faar.
Let 'im cook fer 'bout a half-hour an turn 'im over.
After a while take the whole thing out. Pull the nails, throw out the fish an eat the wood.'

With that he threw his ancient old head back and howled at the Texas sky, his saggy old dungarees shaking with uncontrolable mirth.

I suggest a similar remedy may be in the offing for the BN Old Boy.
Go easy on the dungarees though. A man of your stature can't be too careful

[El Gordo]

The bad news is that I can give a surprisingly full response to the original question.

Note: I didn't say useful or truthful response.

Beaujolais Nouveau, eh? OK....

First of all, I'll say that I'm a fan of Beaujolais in general. For someone (like me) who much prefers red wine to white, Beaujolais is a godsend on warm summer evenings, when you don't much fancy getting your teeth mixed up in one of those chewy, purpley New World jobs.

When I sold wine for a living, I shocked many a customer with the news that I'll repeat here: there's nowt wrong with sticking a bottle of Beaujolais in the fridge for an hour or two. A typical one has the sort of delicate fruit and light weight that lends itself well to such treatment, and is a real pleasure for the red wine enthusiast during the summer.

If you get real keen, move beyond the basic A.C. Beaujolais and try... well ,first off, A.C. Beaujolais Villages which has a spot more alcohol and character. But seriously, get into those actual villages...

Most people have heard of some of them, without realising that they're Beaujolais villages. Fleurie is the most famous, but there's Julienas, Morgon, St Amour, Brouilly, Mouilin A Vent.... and, er, about 5 more that I can't be bothered looking up.

When I worked in the wine business, nearly 20 years ago, the Beaujolais Nouveau thing was a major craze. I didn't realise it was still going now. The idea is/was that BN was the first wine of the year. So once the grapes were harvested around September time, instead of waiting for the following spring to bottle the wine, the Beaujolais producers would bypass the usual secondary fermentation and bottle early, taking their wine to market within a few weeks of the Gamay grapes being plucked from the vine.

It was mainly a marketing thing. The newspaper wine correspondents used to love reporting on which bars in Paris got the first delivery on November 15th -the official release date.

And then it spread to London, and to the UK in general.

When I worked in Manchester for Oddbins, I was delighted to find that my cynicism was noted in the Manchester Evening News. The day after Beaujolais Nouveau in 1983, they carried a large photo of my 'bincard' on our window display, which read "Made by the dependable 'media' method".

When I worked for Oddbins and Majestic, oh, oh.... oh how excited we got on November 15th. It was our Christmas come early. Prize winners would find themselves on trucks leaving Beaujolais at midnight, and making the long journey to the suburbs of London. I managed wine shops in Battersea and Wimbledon and Shepherds Bush during those, yawn, crazeee years, when the truck turning up at 8am was one of the year's highlights.

OK, so let's answer the question. A bottle of BN05 should be perfectly drinkable now. It is NOT a wine to keep. If the bot in question was from an earlier vintage, you might be out of luck but 11 months after the harvest, I reckon you're OK. You're particularly OK if it's made by one of the Beaujolais troopers like Drouhin or Georges Duboeuf. I don't know about 2005 conditions in Beaujolais, but in Bordeaux they were miraculous, so I'd hope that it might be a nice mouthful over that way too.

Uncork the beggar, and raise yer glass to QPR's first victory since February.