Is this the year the Nouveau died?

[Robin Garr]

I understand that wine geeks got over the Nouveau Beaujolais frenzy maybe 20 years ago, but it seems like it persisted in the mass market, with point-of-sale displays and big posters in wine shops and at least a few eateries promoting Nouveau dinners with the subject wine.

But this year seems to me the first in which that's all fallen out of sight. I quizzed my neighborhood wine shop owner about this yesterday, and he said he's ordering one case on behalf of an elderly client, a doctor, who reserves it every year. Okay fine. But I just thought the final breath of a long-term phenomenon was worth recording.

Is anyone else seeing this? Or maybe it happened already on the Coasts?

Again, please note that I am not talking about wine geeks, but the general wine marketplace, the consumer sector that buys Two Buck Chuck by the case and actually think they're beating the system and getting wine worth more than $2.99. (I'm not hating on this segment either. Without them to help build margins, lots of neighborhood wine shops wouldn't be able to bring in the more interesting bottles for us. )

It's definitely on the serious wane.

[David M. Bueker]

Then the question becomes how a lack of interest in Nouveau affects the region as a whole. My guess is that some lower quality producers go under, but beware of unintended consequences on higher quality producers.

[Robin Garr]

Then the question becomes how a lack of interest in Nouveau affects the region as a whole. My guess is that some lower quality producers go under, but beware of unintended consequences on higher quality producers.

Yes, this is a good point. I have no answer, though. Perhaps the good news is that the shift has been incremental, with a gradual decline in interest in Nouveau over the past decade or so. I'm operating on pretty much intuitive and anecdotal information here, with one savvy but distinctly small and neighborhoody retailer having made the decision to pass on the Nouveau action entirely save for individual orders. That's probably not s significant threat to JP Brun and his confreres ... I hope!

My guess is that some lower quality producers go under, but beware of unintended consequences on higher quality producers.

I think the shake out happened some years ago - there were some years of Beaujolais being destroyed because of lack of sales and only those who make the good stuff remain.

I have been impressed with the village Beaujolais I have been drinking recently.

[David M. Bueker]

There's still plenty of bad Beaujolais.

Burgundy was hit by devastating hailstorms this year and there are major crop losses and vine damage. There probably just isn't that much Nouveau being made.

-Paul W.

I'll be attending Beaujolais Nouveau dinner tomorrow night but it is far more than that. We start out with an amuse bouche of Gougere and Kir Royal and go on to three more courses with three wines and a palate refresher sorbet in between two of the courses.

Robin, the lack of lustre in Nouveau is in large part because the Beaujolais producers and their marketing arm saw the fade long before the public did, and they (wisely) decided the future of Beaujolais was not with Nouveau. So they are directing all their energies, and most of their monies, in advancing the Cru Beaujolais as their future.

If your greatest acclaim as a wine region is producing vast undifferentiated volumes of quickly made wine intended to be sold and consumed quite literally within days---it doesn't say very much about your region, does it?

In future the focus for quality will be on the Cru and their separate styles, with Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, and possibly Brouilly CdBrouilly leading the charge; after that, good quality Beaujolais-Villages from good names (mostly those self-same Cru producers), and Beaujolais AOC there for the generic market of grocery shelves and Parisian and Lyonnais bistros. who want a cheap and easy drinking red wine to put on the list regardless of brand.

I expect Nouveau will still be around, but as you surmised, the time when the Beaujolais producers heralded Nouveau Fete are pretty much over.

Robin, the lack of lustre in Nouveau is in large part because the Beaujolais producers and their marketing arm saw the fade long before the public did, and they (wisely) decided the future of Beaujolais was not with Nouveau. So they are directing all their energies, and most of their monies, in advancing the Cru Beaujolais as their future.

If your greatest acclaim as a wine region is producing vast undifferentiated volumes of quickly made wine intended to be sold and consumed quite literally within days---it doesn't say very much about your region, does it?

In future the focus for quality will be on the Cru and their separate styles, with Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, and possibly Brouilly CdBrouilly leading the charge; after that, good quality Beaujolais-Villages from good names (mostly those self-same Cru producers), and Beaujolais AOC there for the generic market of grocery shelves and Parisian and Lyonnais bistros. who want a cheap and easy drinking red wine to put on the list regardless of brand.

I expect Nouveau will still be around, but as you surmised, the time when the Beaujolais producers heralded Nouveau Fete are pretty much over.

As far back as in the mid 1990s I used to marvel at the many NY retailers who would buy up pallets of Nouveau and then find so much of the stuff still on the floor in January. They did it every year and never seemed to get it. The phenomenon was made worse when these same retailers would tell me they didn't want NY wine because it didn't sell!

Robin, I hadn't really noticed, but you are absolutely right. Our local big liquor store only has DuBouef available. I remember not so long ago when Beringer and other would make a Nouveau, but it seems to have pretty much dried up.

I like nouveau, a lot more than some people. There is a small thrill in drinking something that just came off the vine, practically. Still, when it's $13, that puts it out of "fun" wine and into contention with wines of real quality. The value just isn't there.

A pedantic point: there little margin in $2.99 bottles of wine, only volume.

Kermit sent out an email touting Nouveau.

There is a small thrill in drinking something that just came off the vine, practically

Walt, take some grape juice, add a dash of Everclear. Closer to the vine than Nouveau, even.

Speaking as a former retailer, Nouveau was never a real money making proposition---except to overcropping growers who liked subsidization that is---since it was expensive to invest in the specialized equipment to make it, and even more expensive to get it to the market.

When I bought, it had to be airfreighted in, and it wasn't cheap to do that. By the time it got on the floor I had to ask people to pay those higher prices for wine that really wasn't worth it.

In the early years, I'd back up with some ocean freight orders to make sure I didn't run out, and that helped, but not much. And I always had to factor in the stuff left over that went out the door lower than cost.

Biggest trouble for me was I never saw any indication that Nouveau brought one more mouth to wine drinking, so the buzz wasn't worth it. If anything, it was taking away other business.

A pedantic point: there little margin in $2.99 bottles of wine, only volume.

Yes we lose money on the sale of every bottle but we make up for it in volume.

Nouveau was never meant to be taken seriously, and I hope the "tradition" continues, but don't let this discussion stop you from enjoying the 2011 Beaujolais, B-V, and Crus. They could be the best ever, while the '09s are still showing nicely. But the '11s are something special.

Kermit sent out an email touting Nouveau.

I actually tried a Kermit Lynch-labeled Nouveau on Saturday. There was an estate name on the label also, but K-L was definitely in larger type.

Definitely cost more than $2.99!

I liked it. Not tutti-frutti or bubble-gummy at all. Quite funky, actually. Reminded me of Lapierre "nouveaus" I had last year! Othere at the tasting claimed it tasted like "home winemaking". Which is not necessarily a "bad" thing!

One of the best parties in Tokyo I used to get invited to every year was the Nouveau bash the French-owned Hotel Meridien gave every year for all the food writers in town. The food was tremendous, and hardly anybody there knew they were drinking plonk, so everybody had a great time, sort of like a keg party catered by a two-star Michellin restaurant.

Which reminds me of a visit I had from a Japanese friend, who brought an obligatory gift-wrapped gift, which I automatically assumed was something he had received from somebody else, who had received it from somebody else, and so forth, as gift recycling was necessary to keep from being bankrupted by the Japanese custom of rampant gift giving. My friend explained that he knew I loved wine, that he didn't really understand it, but that he was told this was an outstanding vintage. It was, of course, a several year old B. Nouveau.