It's almost heeeeere.....

[Botafogo]

Thankfully, we will have the superior and cheaper Italian versions here on Monday. This is our annual pitch on why we don't sell the French stuff (this particular edition is from the year they were blowing up islands in the Pacific, hence the title):

No Nukes Nouveau!

The French (airlines!) have made a multi-million dollar industry out of shipping the new vintage of Beaujolais to our doors just in time for the Turkey Day festivities. Sounds like a great idea, right? Wrong! Why? Because they insist on blowing up islands? No! While that sure doesn’t help, this is about wine. Read on, friends.

First of all, the whole point of the annual Beaujolais Nouveau craze in France is to celebrate the local harvest, whenever Mother Nature decrees that it occur. But, when the marketing geniuses in the French Dept. of Agriculture decided (for all the right reasons, see below) that nothing could be better with Thom Gobbler than a fresh, fruity, non-tannic red they overlooked one crucial issue: Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday in November come rain or shine. Once you make the commitment to ship on B-Day

you must bottle and pack on B-day minus 14

rack on B-day - 16

ferment on B-Day - 19

crush on B-day - 20

and pick on B-Day - 22 whether the grapes are ripe or not!

About half the time they make it and the wines are delicious, about half the time they don’t and the wines are green and nasty. But, every time they ship them here air express which cost almost as much as the wine!

Our solution is threefold: First of all, to celebrate the local harvest we have selected the very best 1996 wine from right here in California where the harvest is often in late August (!), our perennial favorite Preston Gamay Beaujolais. Then, the explosively zesty Zenato Bardolino Novello and Cavit Novello di Teroldego made from vineyards hundreds of miles south of Beaujolais where it is possible to make great wine every vintage and ship it by boat to your feast with time (and dinero!) to spare.

Finally, for those who don’t do red wines, the hot new Villiera Blue Ridge Blanc from The Cape of Good Wines where they harvest in March.

A public service message from WINE EXPO and The Society for the Prevention of Jaded Palates who remind you that the moderate consumption of wine with meals can lead to
good digestion, convivial conversation and generally civilized living.

Three years in a row our picks of the Italian offerings have won a blind tasting sponsored by a FRENCH cooking school....

Roberto