The Seine and the Rhone may be the most scenic rivers in France but the river that Frenchmen love best is the Beaujolais. The Beaujolais, of course, is a river of wine, and there are many who say that this is the freshest, simplest and most delightful red wine made anywhere in the world. Every year, on the third Thursday of November, the Beaujolais river overflows its proverbial banks with the wine known as Beaujolais Nouveau hen the Gamay grapes harvested just a few weeks earlier complete their first fermentation. From that moment, wine producers compete with each other to bottle the new, fresh wine and send it to Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, where millions of bottles will be opened and sampled on the same date all over the world. At the simplest wine bars and most prestigious restaurants, people will patiently stand in line until the first glasses are filled, and then thirstily gulp down their first glass. Second, third and fourth glasses will then be ordered, all accompanied by loud discussions about the quality of the wine, comparing this year's wine to last, reminiscing about how great the wine of 1985 was, and dreaming about how truly great the wine of next year will be.

It should be clearly understood that no one considers Beaujolais Nouveau a "serious wine". Young and fresh, its color is light, its taste is extraordinarily fruity and it should be just as well chilled as a white wine when drunk. Nor is this a wine for gentle sipping. The wine is made by the process known as carbonic maceration. which means that whole bunches of grapes are allowed to ferment in sealed containers with carbon dioxide gas, this in turn allowing the wine to have lots of fruit and color and little tannin. What this translates into is that the light, crisp, fresh Nouveau Beaujolais is so easy to drink that many consider it at its best when served lightly chilled and drunk not in small sips but in large mouthfuls..

There are those curmudgeons who say the wine is overpriced and that the race to drink it on the first day of its appearance has been over-commercialized. Those people are probably right but they are missing the point, for drinking this delightful wine is as much a social and aesthetic ritual as it is an exercise in pure fun. Some, like this writer, so enjoy this annual ritual that we have been known to enter a state of depression if unable to drink this wine on the first day of its appearance. As to protocol, that is one of the few things that Nouveau Beaujolais dispels completely, for this is a wine that breaks all of the rules and goes as well with a Chateaubriand steak or grilled salmon with anchovy butter as it does with pizza, hamburgers or Indian takeaway food.

At this writing, no one outside of the wineries of France has even the vaguest hint of what the 1998 wine will taste like. Because of late spring rains and a prolonged summer, some of the predictions are not all that positive. All of which makes little importance, however, for until the night of 19 November when the wine is finally released, the speculation will be half the fun. Regardless of the outcome, one can be quite certain that on that night, when the wine makes its appearance the world over, men and women who enjoy the combination of wine and sociability will once again be standing on line, waiting more or less patiently until the first glass is placed in front of them.

Following is a list of the places around the world at which I have most enjoyed drinking this simple but delightful wine:

In Paris:

Cafe de la Nouvelle Marie: 19 Rue des Fosses-Saint-Jacques, Paris

Caves Petrissans: 30 bis Avenue Niel, Paris 17

Bistro des Augustins: 39 Quai des Grands-Agustins, Paris 6

Bistro 27: Rue de la Huchette 27, Paris 6

Willi's Wine Bar: 12 rue des Petits-Champs, Paris 1

Gerard: 4 rue du Mail, Paris 2

Not in Paris

Giacosa, via de' Tornabouni 83R, Florence

Cafe de Paris: via Veneto 90, Rome

Harry's Bar: Calle Vallaresso, San Marco, Venice

Tilos: Passeig de los Tilos 1, Barcelona

Prunier: 63 Ipsilantou, Athens.

The American Bar: in the Savoy Hotel, the Strand, London WC2.

Yo'ezer Wine Bar: Yo'ezer Ish ha Bira 2, Jaffa, Israel

Frogs - A Bistro. 68 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta.

Quartoze Bis: 323 East 79th Street, New York

If You Miss The First Days

Those who miss the first days of drinking the Beaujolais Nouveau need not despair. Because wine merchants want to sell the new wine quickly, one of the best kept secrets in France is that this wine will make for very good drinking for at least one year after it has been bottled. Because this is a wine without tannin it will not age especially well in the bottle. That is to say, the wine will not improve or be transformed into something of great depth and complexity but it will maintain its balance and fruitiness. If stored correctly, however, the wine will be fine for a year, two or, in exceptional cases even longer.

Even though I would not plan on long term storage of Nouveau Beaujolais, those travelling in France between Christmas and the onset of June should seek out bottles of Nouveau Beaujolais or Nouveau Beaujolais-Villages because they can be some of the best bargains around.

© Daniel Rogov