Beaujolais Nouveau 2007

The strangest thing happened today I was actually ten minutes too early for the Alko shop to open but at least I did know to get to the right one!

The same one will be kept open today and the rest of this week for that matter which might be good to know if any unexpected overnight guest surprises us, even if I doubt that.

Anyway, Alko did not open until 12.30 pm differing from the usual 9 am with the strike of the employees beginning this morning to end on Saturday, and so I had to stay in line outside the shop in question with about three dozen people for about ten minutes. In this particular shop the staff consisting of the supervisors of several other shops in the near by area had apparent difficulties in getting the lights on and the cashier’s into working properly and they opened three minutes past their opening hours. During this awaiting the comments in the queue were quite harsh.

There were no happy faces and nobody was smiling or laughing, this was serious matter!

Someone said in honest between his firmly clenched teeth that if he got into the shop he would no go out without having purchased all he could carry and on his credit card. Severe looks and growling sounds were thrown at the passers by as they disturbed the queue that had formed waiting for the shop to open. I was about the tenth to get into the store and was second in line to get out as the Beaujolais Nouveau I was there to get was right in front of me when entering. It took me about 30 seconds to get in and out of there and get in line for the check out.

One strange Finnish custom is to not keep the receipt, and I have been wondering about that as you can never prove that you bought anything, as even the wine or liquor bottles might be deficit.

Anyway, the cashier was quite happy with punching in the two very first bottles of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. After that it was time for mum to go and buy some new books for the offspring to use in high-school and get home early enough in order to get everything in order for the often not until nocturnally ending tasting of the wine. Fortunately this is the one day in the year the offspring has learned there is no use to talking sense to dear old mum. She is probably too far into tasting the wine with her friends, and you'd better be quiet and safe out of sight or otherwise you'll be asked unwanted questions if not by her then her friends.

One thing, I miss the popping of the corks like on the bottles of last year.

I know, I know, the screw tops are much better to keep the wine in perfect order, but still the popping of the cork was an enjoyable thing to do. Kind of made it more festive.