Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. Wine is released for sale on the third Thursday of November. “Beaujolais Nouveau Day” used to see heavy marketing, with races to get the first bottles to different markets around the globe.
The current release practice is to ship the wine ahead of the third Thursday of November, and release it to the local markets at 00.01 AM local time. In Finland Alko, monopoly company selling wines and alcohol, starts selling these wines at 09.00 on Thursday 19th November.
Luckily 2015 we are able to taste 2 different wines, both cost to consumers less than 10€ in Alko.
These wines are Doudet-Naudin Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau and Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau. Georges Duboeuf wine was for also for sale last year, but Doudet-Naudin is new. One specific feature differentiates these wines from the previous vintages, amount of alcohol >13%!!!
THE LOOK
Bottle: Label of Georges Duboeuf follows colorful and joyful trend but Doudet-Naudin does not look traditional Beaujolais Nouveau style with black background.
Wine: Both wines are almost violet, blue-reddish as young wines always are.
THE NOSE
Fruity, even sweet aroma especially when using tasting glass. Cherry, rasberry and fruit candy scent came in to the nose from both wines.
It seems that Doudet-Naidin has more deep bouquet.
THE TASTE
Medium-bodied, young, light fruity wines. Berries (cherry, cranberry) dominate, but on the other hand taste is light. Aroma is more convenient than taste, but with unspiced food and pizzas, both wines pair well.
Doudet-Naudin felt softer because less acidity, but extra 0,5% in strongness made this wine my favourite.
Facts:
Georges Duboeuf Doudet-Naidin
Alcohol: 13,00 % 13,50 %
Extract: 30 g/l 27 g/l
Acidity: 6,1 g/l 5,7 g/l
Energy: 80 kcal / 100 ml (320 kJ / 100 ml) 90 kcal / 100 ml (360 kJ / 100 ml)
Alko has imported 50.000 bottles alltogether of these wines. Let’s see is they are finished before Christmas.
REVIEW:
Georges Duboeuf OVERALL GRADE 4-/5 – BANG FOR THE BUCK ++/+++
Doudet-Naidin OVERALL GRADE 4/5 – BANG FOR THE BUCK ++/+++
Reijosfood 
It is interesting that your bottle of Duboeuf had screwtop – mine had synthetic cork. Actually all three of the Beaujolais Nouveau I tasted had cork enclosures, but all were either synthetic or engineered. I guess it tells something about the preferences of American wine drinkers. I have to admit I loved all three that I tasted – really the best of any prior years…
Most wines under 10€ imported to Finland have metal caps. Many under 15€ the same. Not so nice trend.
So you’ve got a choice between Beaujolais or Beaujolais Nouveau, which would you go for? I’m still not convinced it’s not just a great way to get people talking about the region
…I’m saying that as a lover of Beaujolais anyway
Beaujolais is my choise as they produce nice “normal” wines. Nouveau is just trendy wine making Beaujolais more popular.
Nice to see two Nouveaux reviewed side by side. Something you don’t see very often unfortunately. Would be good to know which one to buy beforehand 🔝🍷😉
Thanks for reading! The difference was not so huge but especially in taste it was more easy to notice.