Taste: A Nouveau Season

Roll out the barrel — well, the bottle — for the first sips of this year’s Beaujolais nouveau

Originally intended as a celebratory toast to the year’s grape harvest, the arrival of young, fruity

Originally intended as a celebratory toast to the year’s grape harvest, the arrival of young, fruity Beaujolais nouveau has become a festivity unto itself. At midnight on the third Thursday of November thousands of cases of Beaujolais nouveau, about half of the Beaujoalis region’s wine production, go on sale in more than 150 countries. This year, Philadelphians got their first sip of the easy-drinking, pizza-pairing red on the 16th at a tasting at the Swedesford Road state store in Wayne. But the real party comes on the 20th, when more than 600 people gather at the Loews Hotel in Center City for the 18th Annual Savor the Reds Beaujolais Nouveau Festival to sip Nouveaux. And don’t miss out on the chance to wine roundtrip tickets for two to the Beaujolais region of France.

Tasting:

November 20th: Regency Ballroom, Loews Philadelphia, 1200 Market Street; 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., $60 per person ($50 for French-American Chamber of Commerce members); venue contact: 215-627-1200; www.faccphila.org.