Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau

Grape: Gamay

Region: Beaujolais, Eastern France

Vintage: 2012

Price: $9.99

In the glass: Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau is a purplish-pink red with a bright red semitranslucent core going out into a violet-fuchsia rim definition with medium viscosity.

On the nose: There is charming sweetish red crushed berry fruit, strawberry fruit roll-ups, red currant juice, carnelian flower, stewed strawberry, red licorice Twizzlers, raspberry coulis and warm floral mineral scents.

On the palate: There is immediate sweetish red strawberry fruit; fresh, lively red forest berries; raspberry zest; and nice, rounded, balanced red fruit flavors throughout the midpalate. A lovely light but solid finish tricks you into thinking that this wine could be a barrel sample of one of the 10 Beaujolais Crus and not a “mere” nouveau.

Odds and ends: Beaujolais is a famous winegrowing area in eastern France, close to Burgundy. Beaujolais is most famous for its Beaujolais Nouveau campaign every Nov. 16, in which people all over the world go out of their way to be the first to bring to market and buy the new wine from there. Beaujolais actually makes very delicious, affordable and serious wines as well. It is a viticultural area that is not big and encompasses 10 so-called “Crus,” which are considered the top wines from there.

Beaujolais Nouveau was really put on the map by Georges Duboeuf, who is the producer of this bottle. His distinctive bottles and labels are virtually synonymous with this type of wine, which is always fresh and delicious and affordable. Nouveau is made using carbonic maceration – essentially whole grape cluster fermentation – and that makes it a perfect wine for the Thanksgiving table. It should be consumed a bit cooler than most red wines, at about 53 degrees Fahrenheit. It should be good through 2012, and do try it with turkey, et al.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.