Frankreich feiert jungen Wein: “Beaujolais nouveau has arrived”

2023-11-16 14:02:35

“Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived”

The first drops of the year are here – making the third Thursday in November a holiday for wine lovers.

Published today at 3:02 p.m

To Beaujolais Nouveau! Connoisseurs taste the grape juice in the streets of Lyon (November 15th).

Photo: Olivier Chassignole (AFP)

The first wine of the year from Beaujolais arrived in Paris early Thursday. With “Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé” wine lovers celebrate a ritual that has been observed for decades.

Since 1951, the first bottles of the young wine, served cold, have been uncorked around the world on every third Thursday in November from midnight. This year, winegrowers in the growing region north of Lyon were able to enjoy a good harvest despite some storms and hail, as the Ministry of Agriculture announced. Yields were 12 percent higher than the previous year and 22 percent higher than the average for the past five years.

Since 1951, the winegrowers in the area near Beaujeu and Lyon have enjoyed the exceptional right to taste freshly pressed grape juice early.

Photo: Olivier Chassignole (AFP)

“The wines are fruity and intensely colored, well balanced and seductive,” said the president of the Inter-Beaujolais association, Philippe Bardet. Most winegrowers would have had a relatively generous harvest and the vines would have largely adapted to the climatic fluctuations. The final ripening phase and the beginning of the grape harvest were characterized by extreme heat, which is unusual for the time of year. In addition, a lack of water has once again caused problems for winegrowers.

10 million bottles for France, 2 million for Japan

Since 1951, winemakers in the area near Beaujeu and Lyon have enjoyed the exceptional right to uncork freshly pressed grape juice early in November. Just a few weeks old, it was initially only intended for the winemakers’ home use to toast the successfully completed grape harvest. When resourceful traders offered the Beaujolais made from the Gamay grape in Paris and competed for the first wine to arrive, the idea for marketing was born.

Last year, a good 10 million bottles of “Beaujolais nouveau” were sold in France alone, and 6.5 million bottles were exported. The main buyer abroad was Japan with 2.3 million bottles, followed by the USA, Great Britain, Canada and Belgium, as Inter-Beaujolais announced.