Observed on the third Thursday of November, Beaujolais Nouveau Day is a French holiday that celebrates the red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France.

Beaujolais Nouveau is one of the most popular vins de primeur and is only fermented for a few weeks before it is released for sale on this holiday. Distributors all over the world rush to get some of the first bottles of this wine for their clients, and there is a good reason for that.

This wine is easy to drink and retains the fruity quality of the grapes without the bitter notes caused by the tannins that come from over-extracting the grape skins. No wonder there is a whole holiday surrounding this wine.

The History of Beaujolais Nouveau Day

The harvest of Beaujolais Nouveau has been observed and celebrated for hundreds of years in the Beaujolais region, but the outside world had little knowledge of it until after WWII. This wine was originally released for sale every year on December 15th, but the Union Interprofessionnelle des Vins du Beaujolais (UIVB) moved the date to November 15th, 1951.

During the 1970s, Georges Duboeuf, a wine merchant, started a campaign to promote this wine across France and Europe. By the mid-1980s, this wine had become extremely popular throughout Europe.

It was then decided that the date of this holiday should be moved to the third Thursday of November. In the following decade, the wine made its way to the United States, where it enjoyed a moderate degree of popularity. The holiday celebrating this wine also came to the U.S., and the rest is history.

Some Amazing Facts About Beaujolais Nouveau

Below are some facts about Beaujolais Nouveau that we feel everyone will appreciate. We’ve collected these amazing facts while researching this holiday for this very article. We hope that the following points bring as much pleasure to everyone reading it as the release of this wine does when it comes around in November.

• The Beaujolais region is 34 miles long and approximately 9 miles wide.
• There are almost 4,000 grape growers in this region of France.
• Beaujolais Nouveau uses a winemaking process called carbonic maceration to create a very drinkable wine.

Observing Beaujolais Nouveau Day

This holiday is observed with a lot of advertising and publicity events. All across France, and even in some English-speaking countries, the slogan “Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!” (The New Beaujolais has arrived!) was traditionally tossed about, but that slogan changed in 2005 to “It’s Beaujolais Nouveau Time!”

In the U.S., this wine is promoted as a Thanksgiving beverage, which makes sense since the following Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. People can spread the word about this holiday online using the hashtag #BeaujolaisNouveauDay.