It’s time for a party

laurie wilson for metro toronto

Marc Staples of the LCBO holds up one of the new release.

Beaujolais Nouveau hits the stores today and for me this marks the beginning of the holiday party season. Nouveau is the first wine of the year’s harvest and is specially crafted to be drinkable at six weeks. It’s light and lighthearted — the perfect party stuff.

Wine snobs look down on Nouveau wines because they’re not serious enough. But since when did seriousness become a party virtue?

The whole idea of Nouveau wines is to celebrate the harvest — it’s the wine world’s Thanksgiving. The Beaujolais region in Burgundy, France, does it big time because its wine is a party drink by nature.

Other parts of France that produce light reds also celebrate Nouveau as do regions in Italy. The Valpolicella co-op in Negrar has been sending us very good gulping Novello for several years now. The striking lion-theme label is designed by Toronto artist Daryl Woods.

All the brightly coloured Nouveau/Novello labels suggest fun times — just in case you did not know how to use the wine. The Mommessin wine comes with three different party scene labels — Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. I suggest you buy a bunch of the wines, get some friends together and create your own Canadian scene. Lightly chill the wines and keep the event lighthearted.

•You’re all invited to my annual Beaujolais And Bocce party this Friday at Allen’s on Danforth near Broadview subway. It starts at 6 p.m. and is outdoors, so dress warmly. Bring your team of four to compete for the coveted Madonna trophy, or join others to form a team. It’s pay as you go.

•Check out the Gourmet Food & Wine show this weekend. I will be there conducting my Wine by Mood seminar Friday night.

Billy Munnelly has been writing about wine for 25 years and is the author of Canada’s largest selling wine book, Billy’s Best Bottles. Sign up for his free monthly e-letter at www.billysbestbottles.com

info@billysbestbottles.com