Wacky weather gives good wine

PARIS -- They were pounded with icy wind in the spring, then baked by Sahara-like heat this summer. Only the strongest Beaujolais Nouveau grapes were able to survive.

You could call it Mother Nature's version of tough love: The 2003 crop turned out terrific thanks to this year's punishing weather, wine-lovers said Thursday at the first ritual tastings.

Beaujolais Nouveau is uncorked worldwide at midnight on the third Thursday of November every year.

Because of the wacky weather, the crop was harvested weeks earlier and was 40 percent smaller than usual. That translates to higher quality grapes.

"Much better than last year," said 70-year-old bar-hopper Yves Bourdeaux, at a Paris bistro where patrons sang boisterously with an organ grinder before noon. "Last year, it was flat and pale."

Jacques Melac, who owns the bistro that his parents founded on the Right Bank in 1938, scoffs at those who gush about the wine's notes of currants, raspberry and violet. They're reading too much into it, he said.

"This is a party wine," said Melac, who has a handlebar mustache and wore a T-shirt reading "Surprising Beaujolais."

"It's an event. Like Thanksgiving in America, or beer festivals in Germany," he said, sipping a glass. Behind him, bartenders uncorked bottle after bottle and handed out cheese sliced from huge, sweating slabs of cantal.

Beaujolais Nouveau is made from hand-picked Gamay grapes grown in the sunny regions near Lyon, in southern France. A spring frost killed many vines this year. Then came the scorching heat. The grapes basked under 300 more hours of sun than usual, ripening so fast that frantic vintners called field hands back from holiday in August, two weeks sooner than usual.

The early harvest meant the wine had more time to settle and mature in cellars. Producers say it's more well-rounded, with a low acidity and deep color that sets it apart from other years.

While the smaller crop translates to prices 12 percent to 15 percent higher in general, the largest exporter to the United States held prices steady from last year.

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau still costs $6.99 to $8.99, despite the euro's sharp rise against the dollar. The company kept prices low out of worries that the backlash against French products since France opposed the Iraq war would cut into sales.

"We wanted to do everything possible to make sure Beaujolais Nouveau would not be part of that," said Peter Deutsch of W.J. Deutsch & Sons, the importer.

Beaujolais Nouveau wine growers say that U.S. orders have been strong.

"People had predicted a catastrophe for us," said Michel Bosse-Platiere, president of the Beaujolais Wines union. "In reality, the American orders are equal to or slightly more than last year."

The United States is the vintners' third-biggest market, after Japan and Germany. France sent seven special Beaujolais-only cargo flights to Japan -- the biggest market -- where a bottle can go for $21. One Tokyo department store boasted 96 different types.

After conquering foreign markets, Beaujolais vintners are still trying to counter bad press at home. Some French connoisseurs complain the Nouveau wine -- which is made and released far more quickly than other Beaujolais -- is short on pleasure and heavy on hangover. One vintner fumed about an article claiming the wine reeks of shallots.

"Very frankly, that's snobbism," said Bernadette Miolane, who helps run a family vineyard. "You can't imagine how it hurts us to hear them talking about Beaujolais that way."

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On the Net:

Site of the Interprofessional Union of Beaujolais Wines:

http://www.beaujolais.com/eng/page.htm