ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250136
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: LISA M. HAMM ASSOCIATED PRESS
With some of New York's premier chefs looking on, French vintner Georges DuBoeuf uncorked the first bottle of his 1996 Beaujolais Nouveau in America.
With a grand flourish, he poured the ruby red wine into a glass, swirled it around, sniffed it and with the French toast, ``Salut,'' took the first sip.
Pursing his lips with pleasure, he pronounced it - what else? - ``fantastique.''
The grand uncorking by DuBoeuf Thursday at Windows on the World, a restaurant atop the World Trade Center, marked the start of the brief drinking season for one of the world's most hyped wines.
Wine merchants in many U.S. cities, including Roanoke, served and sold the wine Thursday and Friday.
Beaujolais Nouveau, the wine of the current harvest, is sweet and savory for only a month or two after bottling. It is made from gamay grapes grown in granite-rich soil in Beaujolais, at the southern end of Burgundy in France.
The young wine with the short shelf life is traditionally uncorked the third Thursday in November, a date set by the French government.
DuBoeuf, who had feted the wine at his vineyard hours before hopping on the superfast Concorde to do the same here, said the wine benefited from an unusually hospitable and abundant harvest season.
``It was an exceptional fall,'' said DuBoeuf, considered the King of Beaujolais for his enthusiastic promotion of the wine. He produced 4.5 million bottles, up 3 percent from last year.
Guests invited to sample the vintage included chefs of many of Manhattan's fanciest eateries.
``Every year they say the Beaujolais Nouveau is better than last year,'' said Jacques Capsuto, owner of Capsuto Freres. ``It's very well-rounded, and it really lingers in your mouth.''
``It's fruity, light, a good time,'' declared Michael Braun, chef and owner of Dix et Sept restaurant. ``It's easy to drink. It's a fun wine. It's a party wine.''
Martin Howard, pastry chef at the Hudson River Club, who suggests drinking Beaujolais Nouveau with chocolate, found this year's ``one of the best ones.''
And Ashbell McElveen, who started Food Stop, a food and wine site on the Internet, described it as the ``perfect red wine for America.''
``It goes with fried chicken. It goes with curried chicken. It goes with macaroni and cheese,'' said the chef.
BEAUJOLAIS IN ROANOKE
* "It was a madhouse in here. The response has just completely overwhelmed us," said Gordon Kendall of Lee & Edwards Wine Merchants. "We rationed it out - two bottles per customer. And we still ran out." The downtown Roanoke store sold out of its 10 cases of Georges DuBoeuf Chateau du Buffavent Beaujolais Nouveau by 4 p.m. Thursday. It has 100 more cases on order; they should arrive next week.
* "We had people standing around, waiting for it," said Rob Callahan, Wertz's Wine Cellar in downtown Roanoke, which sold 25 cases in four hours. ``The Nouveau is just kind of an event wine.'' The store has 25 more cases ordered; they should arrive next week.
- MEGAN SCHNABEL
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Wine merchant Georges DuBoeuf tastes the first glassby CNBfrom the first bottle of his 1996 Beaujolais Nouveau uncorked in the
United States, at Windows on the World restaurant atop New York's
World Trade Center on Thursday. KEYWORDS: 2DA