Bosman Wine sellers
Why November is the month of premiere wines.

DATE
01 November 2021
TEXT
Nico McGough
IMAGE
PR
Some look down on it emphatically and sternly, while others find it an annual moment of pleasure. We are talking about opening a bottle of wine made in the same year.
Tt is normal in almost every wine region that the wine of that year is on sale right after the harvest. It is a pleasure wine as a harbinger of things to come.
In Europe, it goes without saying that November is the 'premier month' par excellence. This makes sense, as wines are usually made in August and September.

New wine used to go to Paris that way.
Sourpuss
After a very short maturation, they go into bottle to please consumers from early November. There are (unfortunately) too many people who don't see the fun in it and sourly refer the young frivolity of these wines 'severely yet unfairly' to the big, white phone. Door the john with it, I hear all too often shouting, and that doesn't do justice to these juicy fresh youngsters.
![]() | Read also: Six delicious wines for autumn & winter Inclement weather and cosy warmth at home. Autumn and winter call for a differently styled wine in the glass |
Personally, I prefer to compare the Primeur wines to other annual traditions. Think of the young new herring, an Easter egg, Saint Nicholas butter letters, or for that matter chocolate letters. What would 5 December be like without this 'once a year' tradition? What would spring be like if asparagus time was abolished? What would Christmas be without a tree? A year without Valentine's, Father's or Mother's Day? NO more birthdays.
Away with that gloomy austerity, back to wine that warms your heart.
Primeur wines
Away with the gloomy austerity, back to wine that warms your heart. No, Primeur wines are not the greatest wines in the world, nor is that by any means their intention. With Primeur wines, winemakers welcome the new vintage. At the same time, they create some cash flow. After all, much of it has been bucking in the vineyards from the previous harvest until the new one, and then it's nice to be able to monetise a piece of the yield immediately.
Fresh, red wine
In many cases, winemakers actually choose grapes from the very youngest plantings. From the reading that the older the vine, the better the grapes. Because you are not looking for great concentration at all, you only leave the grape skins in contact with the juice for a short time, which results in a young, fresh, lively red wine with the emphasis on 'fruit'; no great depth here and certainly no maturing in oak barrels, just NOT. To expressly convey the fruity character in the wine, a fermentation technique was developed. This involves pouring the fresh grapes (entire bunches) into a large fermentation vat, which crushes the lower fruit and slowly starts fermenting.
Fruit intensity
Sometimes they pump in some CO2 (carbon dioxide) and close the vat. Because there is a blanket of carbon dioxide over the fruit, oxygen has no chance, which also prevents fermentation from starting completely. The grapes do soak under the influence of the CO2 gas. Winemakers call this soaking 'macération' and the complete technique is called macération carbonique. Because once the grapes have soaked sufficiently, the fermentation vat is thrown open and alcoholic fermentation starts almost immediately in all its glory. Because soaking takes place largely ín the grape, the fruit intensity of the fermenting juice is enormous. If you walk through a winemaking room where fermentation is in full swing, the ripe fruit aromas will make your mouth water.
No viewing wine
Once fermentation is over and all the sugar in the grape has been turned into alcohol, the young wine is allowed to recover from all this action for a while, but not for long, because usually the bottling line is already ready, just a few weeks after fermentation started. Hup, bottle that morsel and sell it. It is not a wine to be pampered for years on end while the cellar dust layer grows. It is a wine to uncork immediately after purchase. Enjoyment wine, pleasure wine, drinking wine, that's what it is. If the whole of Europe goes Primeur wines at the same time, there will be a tsunami rushing towards consumers from production areas in Spain, Italy and France in particular. Don't take this lightly.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a well-known premier wine
When the most famous of all Primeur wines, Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais Primeur, is released for transport, there is hardly a truck left in Europe to pick up other wines. In terms of numbers, it is also a colossal operation, with tens of millions of bottles going from A to B in a matter of days. Around half of the Beaujolais region's total annual production, for example, is sold as Primeur wine, which is already close to 20 million bottles! With 20,000 bottles per truck, it is quite clear where the sudden rush on the highways comes from.
Having realised the fun of this annual tradition from the beginning of my career - we Brits love traditions, after all - I made it an annual celebration. At 00.01 in the morning on the day of the legal 'déblocage', I threw open the shop and enthusiasts were allowed to come and taste. Soon that got out of hand and it pretty much required tear barriers to keep the hundreds of people in line.
Top BNs
The hospitality industry also stopped by 'after closing' and brought platters of delicacies to give an extra treat to 'the beautiful people' of The Hague. It was fantastic times, top BNs in between us ordinary lovers and everyone with a smile on their face.
The ensemble was finished off with bright pink lace panties, óver the grey underlayer, to add shape to her then still entirely natural lines
Most high-profile was the starlet from The Hague who quacked her pearl-pink 'Mesedes' (no, not a spelling mistake) with gilded star across the street on the pavement and stepped out athletically; it was the middle of winter. To make sure she stood out, she was dressed in a light grey bodystocking with no further touches around the body. The whole thing was finished off with bright pink lace panties, over the grey underlayer, to add shape to her then still completely natural lines. I don't remember ever seeing so many open mouths.
Police raid
And of course there was the traditional police raid that year too, asking what on earth we were doing in the dead of night. Our starlet took both the officers under her wing for a while and with a broad smile they dived back into the duty car shortly after to continue the patrol.

Claire Chasselay. Near Brouilly, this wine wunderkind makes high-profile quality, entirely organic and without added sulphite.
Per tradition, we follow only the Beaujolais Nouveau and we always buy it from Claire Chasselay. Near Brouilly, this wine wonderess makes a high-profile quality, completely organic and without added sulphite. So no headaches the next morning. The legal déblocage 2021 is on Thursday 18 November, when the first bottles of this year's wine may be sold. It will still be exciting, as the gigantic (night) frost damage of April will not have done the available quantities any good.
text Nico McGough / image PR
Some look down on it emphatically and sternly, while others find it an annual moment of pleasure. We are talking about opening a bottle of wine made in the same year.
Tt is normal in almost every wine region that the wine of that year is on sale right after the harvest. It is a pleasure wine as a harbinger of things to come.
In Europe, it goes without saying that November is the 'premier month' par excellence. This makes sense, as wines are usually made in August and September.

New wine used to go to Paris that way.
Sourpuss
After a very short maturation, they go into bottle to please consumers from early November. There are (unfortunately) too many people who don't see the fun in it and sourly refer the young frivolity of these wines 'severely yet unfairly' to the big, white phone. Door the john with it, I hear all too often shouting, and that doesn't do justice to these juicy fresh youngsters.
![]() | Read also: Six delicious wines for autumn & winter Inclement weather and cosy warmth at home. Autumn and winter call for a differently styled wine in the glass |
Personally, I prefer to compare the Primeur wines to other annual traditions. Think of the young new herring, an Easter egg, Saint Nicholas butter letters, or for that matter chocolate letters. What would 5 December be like without this 'once a year' tradition? What would spring be like if asparagus time was abolished? What would Christmas be without a tree? A year without Valentine's, Father's or Mother's Day? NO more birthdays.
Away with that gloomy austerity, back to wine that warms your heart.
Primeur wines
Away with the gloomy austerity, back to wine that warms your heart. No, Primeur wines are not the greatest wines in the world, nor is that by any means their intention. With Primeur wines, winemakers welcome the new vintage. At the same time, they create some cash flow. After all, much of it has been bucking in the vineyards from the previous harvest until the new one, and then it's nice to be able to monetise a piece of the yield immediately.
Fresh, red wine
In many cases, winemakers actually choose grapes from the very youngest plantings. From the reading that the older the vine, the better the grapes. Because you are not looking for great concentration at all, you only leave the grape skins in contact with the juice for a short time, which results in a young, fresh, lively red wine with the emphasis on 'fruit'; no great depth here and certainly no maturing in oak barrels, just NOT. To expressly convey the fruity character in the wine, a fermentation technique was developed. This involves pouring the fresh grapes (entire bunches) into a large fermentation vat, which crushes the lower fruit and slowly starts fermenting.
Fruit intensity
Sometimes they pump in some CO2 (carbon dioxide) and close the vat. Because there is a blanket of carbon dioxide over the fruit, oxygen has no chance, which also prevents fermentation from starting completely. The grapes do soak under the influence of the CO2 gas. Winemakers call this soaking 'macération' and the complete technique is called macération carbonique. Because once the grapes have soaked sufficiently, the fermentation vat is thrown open and alcoholic fermentation starts almost immediately in all its glory. Because soaking takes place largely ín the grape, the fruit intensity of the fermenting juice is enormous. If you walk through a winemaking room where fermentation is in full swing, the ripe fruit aromas will make your mouth water.
No viewing wine
Once fermentation is over and all the sugar in the grape has been turned into alcohol, the young wine is allowed to recover from all this action for a while, but not for long, because usually the bottling line is already ready, just a few weeks after fermentation started. Hup, bottle that morsel and sell it. It is not a wine to be pampered for years on end while the cellar dust layer grows. It is a wine to uncork immediately after purchase. Enjoyment wine, pleasure wine, drinking wine, that's what it is. If the whole of Europe goes Primeur wines at the same time, there will be a tsunami rushing towards consumers from production areas in Spain, Italy and France in particular. Don't take this lightly.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a well-known premier wine
When the most famous of all Primeur wines, Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais Primeur, is released for transport, there is hardly a truck left in Europe to pick up other wines. In terms of numbers, it is also a colossal operation, with tens of millions of bottles going from A to B in a matter of days. Around half of the Beaujolais region's total annual production, for example, is sold as Primeur wine, which is already close to 20 million bottles! With 20,000 bottles per truck, it is quite clear where the sudden rush on the highways comes from.
Having realised the fun of this annual tradition from the beginning of my career - we Brits love traditions, after all - I made it an annual celebration. At 00.01 in the morning on the day of the legal 'déblocage', I threw open the shop and enthusiasts were allowed to come and taste. Soon that got out of hand and it pretty much required tear barriers to keep the hundreds of people in line.
Top BNs
The hospitality industry also stopped by 'after closing' and brought platters of delicacies to give an extra treat to 'the beautiful people' of The Hague. It was fantastic times, top BNs in between us ordinary lovers and everyone with a smile on their face.
The ensemble was finished off with bright pink lace panties, óver the grey underlayer, to add shape to her then still entirely natural lines
Most high-profile was the starlet from The Hague who quacked her pearl-pink 'Mesedes' (no, not a spelling mistake) with gilded star across the street on the pavement and stepped out athletically; it was the middle of winter. To make sure she stood out, she was dressed in a light grey bodystocking with no further touches around the body. The whole thing was finished off with bright pink lace panties, over the grey underlayer, to add shape to her then still completely natural lines. I don't remember ever seeing so many open mouths.
Police raid
And of course there was the traditional police raid that year too, asking what on earth we were doing in the dead of night. Our starlet took both the officers under her wing for a while and with a broad smile they dived back into the duty car shortly after to continue the patrol.

Claire Chasselay. Near Brouilly, this wine wunderkind makes high-profile quality, entirely organic and without added sulphite.
Per tradition, we follow only the Beaujolais Nouveau and we always buy it from Claire Chasselay. Near Brouilly, this wine wonderess makes a high-profile quality, completely organic and without added sulphite. So no headaches the next morning. The legal déblocage 2021 is on Thursday 18 November, when the first bottles of this year's wine may be sold. It will still be exciting, as the gigantic (night) frost damage of April will not have done the available quantities any good.