Beaujolais Nouveau Day - Thursday 16 November

It was Beaujolais Nouveau Day this week, meaning the first wines from the troubled 2023 vintage are now on sale.
Beaujolais Nouveau Day always occurs on the third Thursday of November and is the first time that wines from the recently harvested 2023 vintage go on sale. The wines are often soft and fruity with notable bubblegum and candy fruit flavours, associated with the winemaking technique known as Carbonic Maceration.

It has, in the past, been associated with car races to bring back the first bottles from Beaujolais but these days much of the wine arrives into the UK a few days before and is only made available for release on the third Thursday.

“It makes up between 15-20% of our annual revenues,” Beaujolais wine maker Gilles Gelin told Euronews Business. “It’s pretty significant. Beaujolais Nouveau creates occasions to party - and the party started over 70 years ago now.”

It was in 1951 that such wines were first put on the market with the official ‘Beaujolais Nouveau’ designation.