Friday, November 22, 2013

Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé

Okay, I am one day late.  It's no longer Beaujolais Thursday, but the day after.   Last evening I spent the time with some friends and enjoyed some of this year's Beaujolais.  It is an annual tradition we have adopted and kept for many years now. 

Fifteen years to be precise. 

This marks the 15th year since I began celebrating this French 'Holiday' with friends which began during my study abroad in Junior year of college. 

Through the joy of facebook and an annual email from my friend Calder, I am brought back together with a group of people I spent traveling Europe with.  It was a sort of hodge-podge collective with three different Illinois schools and about 35 students total.  The bulk of us came from U of I and had some connections within the group. It is an annual touch-stone to see what everyone is doing in life and career.

A few of those friends I still keep in touch with on a regular basis, but mostly Calder and I brought this holiday back and shared it with our girlfriends.  Being smart and lovers of (cheap) wine, they adopted it wholeheartedly.   We've gotten older and our palettes are more refined, but still it's fun to drink Beaujolais at least once a year.  In case you are new to this holiday, Beaujolais Thursday is close to and sort of like Thanksgiving, and follows the same pattern:

1. Gather friends and/or family
2. Bring wine
3. Bring food (something French, hopefully)
4. Drink said wine and toast to the Harvest 

Unlike Thanksgiving most people do not have the next day off, that's the only down side!



This year's bottle design by Georges DuBoeuf


http://www.beaujolaisnouveauday.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaujolais_nouveau

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