Every year, Beaujolais Nouveau makes its return on the 3rd Thursday of November. And every year, you tell yourself that you don’t know anything about it? We asked a few questions to Emile Coddens, a young winemaker who shares his passion for wine on TikTok.
The famous Beaujolais Nouveau arrived on Thursday November 16. You still don’t know how this wine is produced, what it tastes like in the mouth and you even confuse Beaujolais nouveau and Beaujolais at all? We asked for a little insight from the young winemaker Emile Coddens, who regularly posts videos of his daily life on TikTok. He is cellar assistant at the Plou et Fils estate in Chargé (Indre-et-Loire). Before tasting (in moderation) the 2023 vintage, here’s what to talk about it as if you were an informed wine lover.
First, Beaujolais Nouveau has “nothing to do” with Beaujolais
“The region’s winegrowers don’t just make Beaujolais Nouveau. They do it because it’s a tradition and behind it, there are their Beaujolais which come from grands crus, from terroirs, which are not primeurs, which have of the material, are kept and truly represent what Beaujolais is. The winegrowers are also a little fed up with Beaujolais being associated with Beaujolais nouveau. They are right, because it has nothing to do with it. Beaujolais traditional, it’s a more complex maceration, more respectful of the terroir, we give the wine time. Now, time and oxygen are the soul of the wine.”
Tasting a Beaujolais Nouveau is like tasting “a draft of the vintage”
“It is a wine which was generally harvested in September and which is therefore put on sale in November. For me, Beaujolais Nouveau is a slightly festive wine to say: the first wines of the year are ready , that’s what it looks like. You have an expression of the terroir and the vintage. There, what you taste is more or less what you will have later, it’s a sketch of the 2023 vintage. And produce a wine as pleasant and drinkable in such a short time, it is the most difficult. You would expect that a wine made quickly would be very easy. No, it is much easier to make a wine and release it in one year. If we see that there are too many tannins or richness, we can let time act so that the oxygen can attenuate the tannins, making the wine evolve. In the case of Beaujolais Nouveau, we do not have no time for that.”
To be vinified so quickly, Beaujolais Nouveau goes through “accelerated fermentation”
“Beaujolais Nouveau meets specifications. You must harvest only by hand, machines are not authorized. You cannot remove the stem, the sort of green stem that holds the bunch, you have to take everything. We fill a stainless steel tank with whole grapes and then we begin yeasting: we immediately add yeasts, and we will do what we call carbonic maceration. We will saturate the tank with CO2 with the yeasts. We do a sort of pressure cooker: the goal is that the grapes do not crush and that they ferment inside the grape. All for a period of a week. And at the end, we remove the fermented grapes and pressed: we obtain a fermented juice which is Beaujolais nouveau.”
And at the end, if it tastes like banana, it comes from the yeast
“It’s a fresh, easy-drinking wine, made in a rather warm climate. It’s an expression of Gamay, a grape variety that we don’t necessarily know, and which is used in other regions, such as Burgundy. Some will prefer Beaujolais Nouveau which have the taste of banana, others prefer those which are not very expressive and which remain with red fruits. Basically, innovation was not what was most sought after.”
“To prevent their Beaujolais Nouveau from being a failure, we tended over time to standardize it. We bought yeasts which flavored the wine, to have this very light side. Now, the trend is the opposite. From now on, Beaujolais Nouveau are especially wines without sulphites, natural, without input, it’s just fruit juice that has fermented. It’s a wine in the spirit of the times which reflects a little the touch of the terroir or the winemaker. This wine is very easy to drink, to have a good time in a bistro in Paris or elsewhere.”