Celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau

This convivial feast in the third week of November is more and more becoming the occasion for the French to go to the Beaujolais region to taste the regional wines, eat authentic regional foods in bistros and celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau, a wine that was first marketed in 1985 and for many years was called by the French the Beaujolais for Americans and Japanese.  

This year Beaujolais Nouveau will be released on the 18th of November at midnight. There will be excitement in New York City and Tokyo, as well as in many other cities around the world, as this once-a-year wine becomes available.

Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine produced by a short method of vinification that makes it ready for drinking in less than a month after the grapes are harvested and pressed. But, Beaujolais Nouveau must be drunk within about 6 months after it is bottled. This is not wine for storing.

For many years, the French pooh-poohed Beaujolais Nouveau and avoided drinking it, out of fear that they would be seen to be as silly as the Americans and Japanese who first created the market for it. But, French winemakers soon realized that Beaujolais Nouveau was here to stay and so they began to apply their unique wine-making expertise to Beaujolais Nouveau. It has worked.

And, the French have come around. After all, it’s hard to be French and not want to try a new wine, even if it is favored by Americans and Japanese. So, along with the ritual of a midnight release that is synchronized around the world, there are now festivals and other events in the French Beaujolais region, and indeed all over France, to honor the early wine.

There will be village winetastings and food fairs, French-style, complete with fireworks, torchlit parades and traditional French guinguettes, a French “tea dance” of sorts, with accordion music and French traditional popular songs. Think Edith Piaf and you’ve got the idea.

This year one town in Beaujolais is staying up all night to celebrate its favorite wine. It’s a “nuit blanche” or white night, when shops and restaurants and wine bars stay open till dawn so that everyone can enjoy the celebration. You’ll probably find jugglers, mimes, and musicians roaming the streets, giving the impression that it’s a mediaeval fair.

Another town is having a marathon - hopefully the runners will save their winetasting till they cross the finish line.

Even Paris, the epitome of French sophistication and haute culture, has succumbed. So, it’s now okay to raise your glass of Beaujolais Nouveau anywhere in the world and say, Thank-you, France, for yet another beautiful treat.