Beaujolais Food Festival at InterContinental

As from midnight on November 18, InterContinental (Malta) will be celebrating a Beaujolais Food Festival.

The week-long experience will include a menu of French specialities and a menu featuring cuisines from Lyon, created for the occasion.

Jean Jacques Hegner, a master sommelier who specialises in the Bourgogne-Beaujolais region, will introduce those present to the delights of Beaujolais Nouveau, a pleasant new wine, and also a vast selection of the mature Beaujolais and Bourgogne wines, while guest chef Serge Ripert will be hosting the finest cuisine of Lyon.

Beaujolais Nouveau began as a local phenomenon in the bars, cafés and bistros of the region. Each autumn, the new wine would arrive amid much fanfare. Served in pitchers filled from the grower's barrels, it was eagerly lapped up by a waiting public. It was wine made fast for drinking while the better Beaujolais took its time to mature. The business has since 1951 been regulated by the Union Interprofessional des Vins de Beaujolais, which recognised officially the Beaujolais Nouveau. The official release date was set for November 15. The tradition reached Paris and quickly spilled out of France. In 1985, the date was changed to the third Thursday of November, tying it to a weekend and making the celebration complete and a four-day adventure. Wherever the Beaujolais goes, importers have agreed not to sell it before midnight on the third Thursday of November.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a triumph of marketing and promotion. Worldwide sales of this wine are now at more than 70 million bottles. It is especially popular in the US. Beaujolais Nouveau is about as close to white wine as red wine can get, due to the way it is made. The astringent tannins normally found in red wines are not there, leaving an easy to drink and fruity wine. It tastes better when chilled - a festive wine to be gulped down and not sipped. Half the fun is knowing that, on the same night, the whole world would be celebrating with the same wine.

The third Thursday in November will be November 18.