A plastic wine bottle for a Beaujolais Nouveau
With Thanksgiving having just passed by, the wine-drinking world has also seen the release of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau wines. Experienced drinkers each have their own take on this well-marketed, commodity wine made from the Gamay varietal. Being an intermediate wine drinker (that’s right – I’m no longer a beginner!) who’s been paying attention to wine for nearly a year, I was anxious to try one of these wines that has the reputation of being more fun than fine.
When I went shopping for one here in my temporary home of Morgantown, WV, the local grocery store had only two available. One of the two was the Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 ($11). It was packaged in a plastic bottle with a screw-top, so I just had to pick it up – since one of our main topics is low-impact wine. As a bonus, one tree is planted for every bottle sold of Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008.
Besides feeling oddly light in my hand, I think that plastic bottles are a great idea for a wine like a Beaujolais Nouveau. Meant to be drunk within six months or so of bottling, aging issues aren’t a factor. And since 90% of the world’s wines are meant to be drunk within one year, plastic bottles and screw tops are a potentially good low-impact choice for most wines on the market (though it surely would take a mental adjustment to get used to).
But also important to our readers, how did it taste? The Labouré-Roi Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 was a very light drinking wine, with high acid and a bright taste. There were sharp, young tannins and a nose and mouth of red fruit. It was a fun and pleasing wine, with a bright, vibrant color – but overall nothing very special. However, with its lower carbon footprint, I’m glad I tried it – plus there’s one extra tree in the world now.
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[…] few days ago, we wrote about our first encounter with plastic wine bottles with a 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau from Labouré-Roi. This winery thinks it’s understood that plastic wine bottles have a lower […]
[…] we wrote about the appearance of Labouré-Roi’s Beaujolais Nouveau in a plastic bottle and discussed the carbon footprint of plastic wine bottles. But plastic wine […]
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