A tale of two Nouveaus 
The Nouveau Beaujolais is here again, and thereby hangs a tale: Everyone knows that this first young wine of the new vintage is supposed to be ripe with fresh fruit. But nowhere is it written that it has to reek of bananas and sweet cotton candy, as so many Nouveaus nowadays do.
Contrary to some reports, this character is not a necessary result of the carbonic maceration process used to make nouveau-style wines. Nor is it a Beaujolais tradition of long standing. In fact, it's the hallmark of Georges Duboeuf, the so-called "King of Beaujolais," whose products dominate the Beaujolais market and whose "house brand" of wine yeast - a product called 71B that's closely related to a beer yeast used in some Belgian monastery ales - imparts a startling banana-oil flavor to the wines it makes. Perhaps because of economics or maybe because of the success of Duboeuf's wines in the marketplace, quite a few other Beaujolais makers are using 71B these days, to the extent that many people regard the banana flavor as a trademark of Beaujolais. But it needn't be so. To mark the arrival of this year's Nouveau (which is always released on the third Thursday of November), I passed on Duboeuf but tried two other Nouveaus, one quite clearly made with 71B and the other without. The side-by-side comparison reinforced my strong opinion: No bananas for me, please!
FOOD MATCH: Both wines work well enough to wash down veal chops; the Saint-Aubin, in addition, makes a very nice match with a cauliflower-carrot puree laced with fresh ginger and garlic and Indian spice.
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Léonard de Saint-Aubin 1999 Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau ($7.99)
Joseph Drouhin 1999 Beaujolais Nouveau Primeur ($8.99)