A new red wine made in the Beaujolais region in the south of Burgundy, France. (*It is also called "Beaujolais", and sometimes written as "Beaujolais" in katakana.) The grape variety is Gamay. It is released every year on the third Thursday of November.
It was originally created for the Beaujolais harvest festival but has since become popular all over the world.
In particular, in Japan, being close to the International Date Line, the selling point that "You can drink Beaujolais Nouveau the earliest in the world" was a big hit. In 2004, over one million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau were imported into Japan.
Even now that the boom has died down, its popularity remains strong, with around half of all exported Beaujolais Nouveau coming into Japan.
Beaujolais Nouveau is characterized by being made using a special early fermentation method called carbonic maceration. This method directly reflects the quality of the grapes of the year, so if this wine is delicious in a year, expectations are high for the quality of the wines from southern Burgundy that year.
