Each year, the week before Thanksgiving Day, they appear by the carton and by the casestack and by the pallet. Some arrive in brightly colored boxes, adorned with the signature floral motifs of a Certain Negociant while others, perhaps aware of their karmic disgrace, arrive more discretely in plain white paper boxes. Packaged luridly or blandly, “They” are the New Vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau, and, while their contents may be brilliantly bright and purple-hued, they are responsible for doing much to discolor the reputation of wines from this subregion of southern Burgundy.

While a few show real purity of fruit and offer real wine drinking pleasure, more often than not Beaujolais Nouveau wines are nothing more than scrawny, mean-spirited creations with aromas akin to beet juice or they are laboratory-bred concoctions made from manipulated yeast strains and lots of sugar (chapitalization). With aromas of banana and dime-store bubblegum, these ersatz contrivances may be lucrative for their producers, but they are not real wines.

Why such a rant?

a). Because it’s fun, and

b). There are worthy wines from Beaujolais that don’t get the attention or respect that they deserve.

As I mentioned earlier, Beaujolais is a subregion located in the southern part of Burgundy. Within Beaujolais itself, there is a tier system with simple Beaujolais at the bottom (not counting Beaujolais Nouveau which frankly should not count at all), followed by Beaujolais Superieur, then by Beaujolais-Villages and finally, at the top, the ten crus of Beaujolais which lie in the northern part of the Beaujolais district. Each of these crus, or specific vineyard sites attached to small hilltop hamlets or villages, contain specific soil types and microclimates summed up by the wonderful French concept known as “terroir.” While Gamay is the grape that unites all of the (red) wines of Beaujolais, it is within these specific crus (Brouilly, Cotes de Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgon, Moulin a Vent, Regnie and St. Amour) that wines of finesse, complexity and, in many cases, ageability, are produced.

Domaine Gerard Charvet is a small producer based in Chenas but with vineyard holdings elsewhere including in Moulin a Vent. Made from Gamay vines averaging 35 years old, the “Reserve d’Amelie” offers complex aromas of sweet cherry, black currants, floral hints as well as an earthy-minerally impression that might be linked to the soil composition which is granite and manganese based. There’s a fleshy silkiness about the texture here, yet it finishes almost crisply and light-handedly, leaving one wanting more. In its own way, it’s a powerful wine, but here the power is that of seduction and persuasion rather than brute force. At the table, this Moulin a Vent is a versatile wine pairing well with grilled tuna, lamb, steak, hamburgers, Cajun-spiced chicken, ratatouille, etc.

At $16.99 per bottle, this wine is probably a few dollars more than that Beaujolais Nouveau wine one might be accustomed to, but if you’re buying by the palate and not the pallet, it’s well worth the difference.