Pain au vin nouveau

Six days before the unveiling of the 2004 Rézin cuvées, there was another highly anticipated release: the 2005 vins nouveaux. Unlike the Cuvée Rézin Blanc - P St-Vincent 2004, which is sold out, and will remain unavailable for least a couple of months, the 2005 vins nouveaux continue to languish on store shelves. And these "wines of the latest vintage" were out the earliest!

I'm not a big fan of the whole vin nouveau thing. It was conceived in the 1950s as a marketing ploy. If knowing that is not enough to turn me off, then tasting the stuff seals the deal. Yet the phenomenon has its followers as well as its detractors.

Taking a clever stance somewhere in the middle is the Première Moisson bakery chain: Not really a "Nay" or an "Aye" but more like a "We'll boil the stuff and make it good." With that idea in mind, and perhaps a little marketing ploy of their own, Première Moisson has been baking a little vin nouveau into their delicious loaves, which I think is a tremendous idea. Darn tasty too, so if you find this distinctive red loaf, get it. It's not surprising that the French have recognized this Quebec bakery as world-class. They can take plonk and make it fit for a king. Unfortunately, I have not seen any more pain au vin nouveau in their shops. I suppose it was a limited-time offering that coincided with the wine's sudden annual appearance, which is always a Thursday late in the month of November. If some of these Beaujolais keep hanging around the SAQ through the holidays, then I would encourage the bakers at Première Moisson to nip out for some more and put their magic recipe back in action.

Backwash
I let the Loire provenance of the Cuvée réZin rouge - E. Excoffier 2004 fool me. There's no Cabernet Franc in this table wine at all. The Loire grape that makes strong showing is actually Gamay. Syrah, Cinsault and Grenache from the Rhône get blended into the cuvée too. My apologies and another thumb's-up to Thierry Puzelat and the fine folk at réZin.

Yesterday I may have done readers another disservice by not listing the coordinates of Daylight Factory -- it's officially listed as Café Daylight Factory, just so you know. On top of that omission, I may have also done the café an injustice (Disservice + Injustice = Bad first day on the blog). I called it swanky when it's actually a grand-prize winner in the Commerce Design Montréal contest. This bar was remarkably transformed from loading dock. That explains the interesting two-tiered topography. I think I called it swanky because the levels reminded me of a Hollywood sound stage. Not that swanky is bad anyway. Check out the little panorama movie on the link above for a look.