Nouveau Day: Gamay Beyond the Hype

Beaujolais Nouveau is released at one minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November, and this year that lands on a night we are open with glasses already in hand. So we are doing both. We pour the Nouveau, the grapey, bubblegum-scented, gloriously unserious wine that made the region famous, and we talk about why it exists and why it tastes the way it does. Then we spend the rest of the evening on five serious Gamays: cru bottlings off granite hillsides that can age a decade, plus one from much closer to home that will make you rethink the grape entirely. Gamay is the friendliest red on earth at a dinner table and one of the best values in France. Every bottle we pour is on the shelf when we finish, so you can find out over dinner this week.