Here at Hammerland we likes us some wine.
Halloween has candy, Thanksgiving has turkeys, Easter has Peeps. Hammer has Beaujolais Day.
For those unschooled in the fine art of vin de merde in general, and Beaujolais Nouveau in particular, here’s a little info. Beaujolais Nouveau starts somewhere in the 1800s. (I’m of course making that up, I wasn’t there). Because it’s often made with a grape variety called a Gamay, Beaujolais doesn’t keep well, and doesn’t ferment a long time. It is the first wine ready to be poured from the harvest of the year.
Back in the day, as soon as it was ready, all the Frenchmen would hop on their scooters and drive around town yelling “Le Beaujolais Est Arrivé!” Which is French for “I’m drunk and driving a scooter!” Soon after, there were several hilarious scooter accidents, no one was hurt, and everyone would get fabulously drunk and look forward to the day when the new Beaujolais came out the next year.
Finally, in the 1980s, no doubt inspired by Gordon Gekko’s Greed is Good speech, some Frenchman decided that a little uniformity would make it easier to market the stuff, and thus easier to get to the “steak lunches, hunting and fishing trips, corporate jets and golden parachutes” that Gekko refers to.
Panels were formed, committees were empowered, scooters were lubed and Beaujolais Day was born. The third Thursday in each and every November shall be known as Beaujolais Nouveau Day. God, those Frenchmen have this planet figured out better than anyone.
Anyhow, today is the day to got yer fresh wine. I plan on picking up a jug or two and getting ripped to the tits on it.
Slante.
