Beaujolais Nouveau

I'll be dining with Sutro's family on Thanksgiving. They live about four hours west of Knoxville and his aunt and uncle have been kind enough to allow us to stay in a guest apartment (swank, non?) above their garage. Therefore in addition to making the Unfussy Buttermilk Apple Cake with Ginger Whipped Cream for Thanksgiving I also want to bring a host/ess gift.

I have a friend who works at Coffee and Chocolate over on Market Square, so I think I'll go sometime she's working and put together a yummy box of chocolates. Then going through my emails, I noticed one from Ashe's Wine and Spirits advertising Beaujolais Nouveau being released this Thursday. Yes, it is apparently French law that no matter when the grapes are harvested, BN is released the third Thursday of November. I thought that it would be lovely, pairing a special wine like that.

I had had some last year, and it wasn't too impressive, afterall, it's a very recently harvested wine. It seems that the entire concept of it is what one would picture takes place in a provincial economy where wine is common. It tastes like a young wine. It is tart and simple. It has not yet been able to develop the layers of flavor. So I decide to do some research to figure out which vineyard typically produces the best. Apparently not many people are too impressed with BN.

And then I am stunned by my hypocracy. I attempt to keep my carbon footprint limited, my main moral reason for eating local. And here I am, researching which wine, a wine that has been specially airlifted for rapid consumption, I will purchase. And it's not like we lack in good local wineries. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I am ashamed that I did not consider wine's carbon footprint. But now I have. And it will especially be in my mind.