The Beaujolais nouveau phenomenon: why do we wait until November for this young French wine?
Beaujolais nouveau literally means "new Beaujolais" from this year's harvest, also known as primeur - the first wine of the season. It is pressed from gamay, the primary red grape variety of the Beaujolais region.
Made with AIIt is produced at lightning speed: bottled before the end of the year, and arriving in shops without fail on the third Thursday of November.
Untouched bunches
The process begins without crushing: whole, untouched bunches go straight into the vats, and inside a vessel containing very little oxygen, the grapes begin to ferment within their own skins. This is carbonic maceration, in French macération carbonique, along with its gentler semi-carbonic variant, which has long been characteristic of Beaujolais.
Fermentation carried out in this manner preserves the fresh fruit character and yields soft tannins. Producers harvest the earliest-ripening plots, and regulations limit cuvaison - the duration for which the juice remains in contact with the skins that impart colour and tannins to the wine - to no more than ten days. Thanks to this, the wine is ready quickly, having already completed malolactic fermentation, the secondary conversion that softens acidity.
A race against the calendar
The name nouveau is no mere label embellishment. The rules of the appellation (a protected geographical area governed by its own regulations) permit the addition of the words primeur or nouveau solely to wines that satisfy specific criteria. All grapes must come from a single vintage, the vintage year must appear on the label, and bottling must be finished before 31 December.
By comparison, standard red Beaujolais must wait at least until the New Year, reaching customers only from mid-January onwards.
Beaujolais Thursday
The tradition of early release emerged in the autumn of 1951, when Beaujolais winemakers received permission to sell a portion of their bottles en primeur, thereby circumventing the December regulations. The young wine quickly won admirers, yet it never came to dominate the region's total output. The official date of celebration was established only in 1985. Since then, Inter Beaujolais, the local association of winegrowers and merchants, has ensured that the first corks are drawn on the third Thursday of November - which falls on 19 November in 2026.
A wine with a short shelf life
Such a rapid production process has its consequences. Young Beaujolais is meant for early drinking - ideally within six to twelve months. This is by no means a flaw. Beaujolais nouveau offers something different from traditional wine: a light, fresh, vividly fruity pour designed for the here and now, rather than for cellaring.
The Polish side of the tradition
Poland also celebrates the new harvest. We open our bottles on St Martin's Day, 11 November, a full week ahead of the French. Although our St Martin's Day precedes the French Thursday, the difference lies in the rules. The Polish date is purely customary, whereas the birthday of Beaujolais nouveau has been given the force of law through strict regulation.
