In exalted wine circles, caution is advised before confessing to enjoying a Beaujolais Nouveau wine – it may cost you friends… American wine critic Karen MacNeil makes no bones about it. “I hate Beaujolais Nouveau,” she posted on her blog in 2017. Some years earlier she wrote: “Drinking it gives you the same kind of silly pleasure as eating cookie dough.” Fortunately, I don’t move in exalted wine circles and may safely confess to enjoying cookie dough.
Real Beaujolais Nouveau is made from Gamay Noir grapes in the Beaujolais area of the Burgundy wine region in France. It’s a so-called ‘vin de primeur’ or early wine made to be released in the same year as the harvest. In the Cape Winelands, this isn’t unusual as our grape harvest takes place early in the year but in Beaujolais the harvest takes place in September and achieving the same-year feat requires special measures.
The key to achieving the same-year feat lies in carbonic maceration. I’ll resist the urge to share everything I’ve learned about carbonic maceration over the past few hours in front of my computer and stick to the bare essentials! Carbonic maceration is a whole-bunch fermentation technique during which most of the juice is fermented while it is still inside the grape. The resulting wine is fruity and low in tannins and can be ready in only a few weeks. (By contrast, most non-Nouveau wines are made by first pressing the grapes and then fermenting the resulting juice.)
As with most things French, there are all kinds of rules with regard to Beaujolais Nouveau wines. The most important ones are that it can only be made in the Beaujolais area, has to be made from Gamay Noir grapes and may not be released before the third Thursday of November each year. The latter requirement has in the past given rise to some rather interesting and involved logistics schemes to get the wines to far-flung parts of the world as soon as possible after their release.
All right, that’s enough background. Back to local shores!
Every year Noble Hill, on the slopes of the Simonsberg near Franschhoek, makes a few hundred bottles of a Beaujolais Nouveau-inspired wine. Unlike the French original, Noble Hill’s Crux Mataro Nova is made from bushvine Mourvèdre (a.k.a. Mataro in Spain) using the aforementioned carbonic maceration technique. After carbonic maceration for 18 days to achieve the first 4-5% alcohol the grapes were pressed and traditionally fermented for the rest of the way. It was bottled without fining or filtration, which means there can be a bit of sediment in the bottle.
Beaujolais Nouveau has been described as “the only white wine that is red” and should be served chilled. This also holds true for the Crux Mataro Nova. Expect floral aromas combined with savoury and earthy notes. It is recommended to be enjoyed with charcuterie and hard cheeses. I quite enjoyed mine with some biltong or simply on its own at the end of a hot summer’s day…
Alcohol 12.5% vol | Residual Sugar 1.8 g/l | Total Acid 4.5 g/l | pH 3.5
www.noblehill.com | +27 (0)21 874 3844
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