The Beaujolais nouveau has arrived !

As each year in mid-November, an event in a great deal of Pubs in France takes place. For the first time of the year, the pubs’ owners serve the Wine Beaujolais (Beaujolais nouveau), harvested in August and September. This wine is also sold in supermarkets and people drink it at home. It is a special process that allows the wine to be bottled before the majority of other wines. A part of the harvest is treated like that so as to delight people with something new in november!! and to sell it earlier … It is a tradition that started in area of the town of Lyon. People go to Pubs to taste the wine and also eat, sing, dance …In principle it is a time of conviviality. This phenomenon has spread throughout France and now it is a “fashion”. Japanese people buy a lot of wine (at a very high price) and it is a big event in this country with all its excesses! It is sometimes an opportunity for people to get… drunk and … have a hangover the next day!! It could be funny except if, like in Grenoble (town near Lyon and Alpes) young people (many hundreds) had a party and got drunk. The result was fights with the police and fifteen policemen hurt (nothing to do with the recent riots). It is not a good behaviour when you want to have fun!!
For a few years, it appears that French people have been less interested by this event. We see less parties in Pubs. The problem is that the prices have increased and this wine has a special taste (Specialists say it tastes of banana, blackberry, strawberry…it depends on the year). Anyway, it is a little bit sour! It is not very good and a five year old Beaujolais is better! At least it is my opinion. Not everyone agrees.
This has brought about good profits in the Beaujolais area! In other areas, wine growers have thought it worthwhile to do the same thing… and now you can find for example the ‘Touraine nouveau’! It is not better and appears to be a commercial operation!

So much wine was drunk in Lyon that people said:

Three rivers flow through Lyon: the Saône, the Rhône and …the Beaujolais!