A Greener Beaujolais Nouveau - In Stores Tomorrow

The third Thursday of November has always been the first day where the new vintage can be tasted in the form of Beaujolais Nouveau opens in a new tab! Beyond the first taste of the year’s quality, Nouveau is more about celebration. Celebration of the harvest, celebration of the first revenue from a year of hard labor, and celebration of another year past all the way through the holidays.Best enjoyed fresh, or before spring returns, Nouveau is a terrific compliment to the rich, earthy and spicy flavors that come across the holiday table. The crazy complex flavors of roasts, game, mushrooms, squash, root vegetables and flavorings such as sage, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, peppers, and the like are perfectly complemented by Nouveau’s grapey flavor and refreshing acidity.In order to get Nouveau on the third Thursday of November, it is flown around the world to restaurants, bars and parties. Historically, fuel was low cost and the environment not foremost of consideration, so the carbon footprint wasn’t an issue. But with the environment ever more important to an increasing number of wine drinkers, the cost and fuel required to fly wine bottled in heavy glass around the globe has caused wineries to reconsider how this fun and eventful wine is distributed.Whole Foods Market is proud to present the first ever bottling of Nouveau in plastic bottles! This lowers the carbon footprint of getting this wine to your table. Just think, less guilt while enjoying wine with friends! And it lowers the cost for you to get it to the table too. Just imagine sitting on a fatter wallet while you’re enjoying the same exact delicious wine with friends! It’s more than delicious. It’s a new way to enjoy this traditional regional wine.Worried about how plastic changes the way a wine may taste? Well don’t be. Nouveau is for near term drinking. This wine should be in your belly before either plastic or oxygen has the time to impact the fresh juicy character of this wine.Nouveau drinkers can rejoice with a lower priced and greener wine in 2008. If you’re not a Nouveau drinker, then there is no better year to join the celebration.Erez Klein, our Wine Buyer for the Pacific Northwest Region of Whole Foods Market, began a passion for food and wine when travelling the world during his childhood. In college, his studies in political economy were waylaid by a course in wine appreciation and he found himself reading (and drinking) everything he could get hold of regarding wine and history. Before joining Whole Foods Market, Erez worked in Napa Valley with famed wine centric restaurateur Joyce Goldstein at Square One Restaurant and at The Auberge du Soleil Resort as Wine Director.