The 3rd Thursday in November is when the new batch of Beaujolais (Beaujolais nouveau) wine is officially put on sale to the public. I know nothing about this but there's a fair bit of fanfare. In many stores I saw signs proclaiming, "the new Beaujolais has arrived!" Beaujolais is the most popular of the "primeur" wines, which are wines harvested in the fall and sold before spring (much sooner than they could be produced through normal fermentation). Here in Toulouse, you can also buy Gaillac primeur which is produced about 30 miles NE of town. So it's a popular alternative to Beaujolais.
Anyway, I was in the supermarche when I came across a large display of Gaillaic primeur. It caught my attention because of the label: Laurent Jalabert. Could this be the very Laurent Jalabert who finished 4th in the 1995 Tour de France?? I took a closer look and noticed a silhouette of a cyclist. Indeed! Back in the mid-90s when I was following the Tour de France on TV (pre Lance; and yes, I'm a bike geek), I became a fan of Jaja (as he's known). Not sure exactly why, but he is actually a well accomplished pro cyclist, now retired. Apparently he grew up on a vineyard in Gaillac. How exciting. So of course I bought a bottle and drank a glass in Jaja's honor. I'll have to keep my eyes out to see if any other cyclists (obscure or otherwise) have their own labels. Vive le Tour!
One final note: upon reading a little bit about Jalabert on Wikipedia, I discovered that he ran the 2005 NYC Marathon in 2:55:39 (crushing Lance Armstrong's time of 2:59:36).
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