About a week ago I was very surprised when my friends at La Cave des Papilles told me that Hervé Villemade, the wine maker in the Loire, had left me something. It was a shiny new case of Quoi d’Neuf? I’d made the label for Hervé three years ago and he reissued it all over France during the Beaujolais Nouveau wine orgy. While most of these sickly sweet wines are celebrated as something remarkable – nearly half of the 65 million bottle production are consumed within 48 hours of the launch on the third Thursday each November – Villemade’s take is 100 percent Pinot Noir. It’s drier than the Gamay grape used for Beaujolais Nouveau and all natural. No sulfites, no added sugars, no filtration, production under 10,000 bottles, and made with TLC. So…no headache the morning after. And from what has been the talk of France, the 2009 harvest is shaping up to be an exceptional year – like 2005. My cavist, Florian said: “You can hold on to this for a couple of years. Don’t go drinking it all in a single weekend.” Price: 7 – 8 Euros per bottle. And there’s still some left. If you can find it.