Happy International Chardonnay Day!

I am not sure whether today is 'International Chardonnay Day' or 'National Chardonnay Day.'  Or just plain, old 'Chardonnay Day.'  No matter, I'm going international with a Chablis.  However, there is a Napa Valley connection with this wine.  It is imported into the United States by Boisset America, St. Helena.  (Yes, that Boisset.  See here and here and here.  The less said, the better.)
Not a huge fan of Chardonnay, I have to say I consumed a fair amount of Chablis when I was growing up, never ever taking the stuff serious.  Always bone dry, fresh, austere and a tad green, Chablis always seemed to pair well with food.  And good conversation.
The J. Moreau & Fils, 2018 Chablis (AOC), "is specially selected in each vintage from the best wines of the Chablis appellation."  Makes sense, the Boisset family own several vineyards in Burgundy.  Due to a warm, dry summer the 2018 vintage in Chablis is believed to be one of the best in quite a while.
The wine?  Nose - lemon curd, satsuma peel and Bird's Custard powder.  Mouth - pineapple, melon rind (Vinomaker says Crenshaw) and wet pebbles.  Acid?  Fab.  A very pleasant quaff.  Served as a reminder as to why I can't abide California style Chardonnay.
Oddly, the alcohol is listed as "11% to 14% by vol."  I don't even know how listing alcohol content like that is legal here in the U.S., it's a bit wishy-washy.  But that's the French for you.  À votre santé!

Last night's tipple: 2.

I love this wine.  I first tried it at a neighbour's Christmas gathering and immediately fell head over heels.  Delicate (almost ethereal), refreshing, laden with a bowl-of-red-berries-fruitiness, crisp and gracefully balanced acidity, this was the perfect wine for sipping whilst mingling and chit-chatting.  As one would imagine, I was very happy when my party-throwing neighbour recently gifted me a couple of bottles of it.
Domaine Allimant-Laugner Brut Rose NV (Crémant d'Alsace, AOC) is produced from 100% Pinot noir, is a very pale pink (I'm thinking not much skin contact) and is perilously easy to drink.  Priced well, so it falls into my cheap and cheerful category of wines, I will certainly be stocking up on this little gem.  (I find myself enjoying sparkling wines now even more than I ever have before.)  Vinomaker wasn't quite so enamoured with this wine as I was, which I am totally fine with because it means that there is more for moi.  It's a tough job, but somebody has to imbibe in this eminently appealing Alsatian wine.

Nouveau vin.

It's here, the third Thursday in November, Beaujolais Nouveau Day (BND).  Whoo hoo!  Often lost amidst the Thanksgiving brouhaha, there are 5 Thursdays in November this year (like in 2012), so BND has a Thursday all to itself this year.
The marketing spectacle that is BND happens to be one of my earliest vino-memories.  The race to get the first bottles of Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc across the English Channel, a.k.a. La Manche, to Blighty's Nouveau enthusiasts, always made it on to the national news broadcasts.  The challenge usually took the form of differing forms of transportation all earnestly employed in the conveyance of the new vintage, as tout de suite as possible.  I seem to remember that one year a Mini and a Citroën 2CV, both laden with cases of Beaujolais, competed for the distinction of being the first to arrive on Albion's shores.  Unfortunately, I can't remember who the victor was.
And why shouldn't the villagers of Beaujolais enjoy their vin de primeur as early as they wish?  The modern day contrivance of a red wine languishing in an expensive Limousin oak barrel, for perhaps 2 years and upwards, in some respects is just a fashion.  However, the average consumer now expects, nay demands, oak characteristics in wine.  I could happily drink Vinoland's 2018 Syrah, that was pressed off last Sunday, now - it is simply an unoaked wine.  Beaujolais Nouveau is a fun, inexpensive wine with no pretensions of being anything other than that.  I love it, I even respect it, as it takes almost the same amount of effort to farm, harvest and vint the Gamay grapes as any other red wine varietal.  It is a celebration in a glass.
So how was the wine?  I could only find one Beaujolais in Napa (BevMo), ideally I would have liked to compare at least two.  The Georges Duboeuf, 2018 Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau (AOC Beaujolais) was delightful.  On the nose, a heady whiff of defrosted-strawberries, cherry, bubble gum and pear drop (Isoamyl acetate) gave way to a subtle blue-floral element.  A more than acceptable amount of grape tannins gave the wine a nice mouthfeel, even if the finish was a little abrupt.  At $11.99 this new-wine was a marvelous midweek tipple.  À votre santé!