When it comes to Beaujolais (and Beaujolais Nouveau) I’m a bit of an expert. In my previous life I was purchasing director for the UK’s largest Beaujolais importer – the exclusive agent for Georges Duboeuf. At it’s peak (at the end of the 80’s and early 90’s), Nouveau was huge, and sold in mega volumes all over the world. Complete jumbo jet loads flying to Japan and the States, dozens of trucks racing all over Europe (I think we had nearly 20 trucks entering the UK alone) – it was impressive. Originally the wine was released from Beaujolais on the third Thursday of November, and this would inevitably result in the trucks racing along French motorways to get Nouveau to the table as early as possible. (Many restaurants would even open for a Beaujolais breakfast!) Naturally the French police were pretty unhappy with this arrangement, and so they eventually moved the release point away from Burgundy. For example, wine destined for the UK was released from the port of Calais at midnight, where it was loaded on to cross-channel ferries. This was eventually moved across the channel so that the wine could be released from customs at the port of Dover, but this simply resulted in the trucks racing along the UK motorways instead. The final step was to release Nouveau to the warehouse of the importer, a day or two before the official launch – the cases were simply printed ‘Not for sale before the third Thursday of November’. Not as exciting as the Beaujolais Race, but in reality, a whole lot safer (and less exhausting for those working on the distribution).

So, now for the interesting (or perhaps amusing) part of the story. Yesterday Angela & I were in Madrid on business, and had an hour or two to kill before our return flight. We found ourselves in the Gourmet Food & Wine department of a famous department store, and you can imagine my surprise when I saw the Beaujolais Nouveau 2014 already on sale – a full two days before the official release date …. Ça va pas!

When it comes to Beaujolais (and Beaujolais Nouveau) I’m a bit of an expert. In my previous life I was purchasing director for the UK’s largest Beaujolais importer – the exclusive agent for Georges Duboeuf. At it’s peak (at the end of the 80’s and early 90’s), Nouveau was huge, and sold in mega volumes all over the world. Complete jumbo jet loads flying to Japan and the States, dozens of trucks racing all over Europe (I think we had nearly 20 trucks entering the UK alone) – it was impressive. Originally the wine was released from Beaujolais on the third Thursday of November, and this would inevitably result in the trucks racing along French motorways to get Nouveau to the table as early as possible. (Many restaurants would even open for a Beaujolais breakfast!) Naturally the French police were pretty unhappy with this arrangement, and so they eventually moved the release point away from Burgundy. For example, wine destined for the UK was released from the port of Calais at midnight, where it was loaded on to cross-channel ferries. This was eventually moved across the channel so that the wine could be released from customs at the port of Dover, but this simply resulted in the trucks racing along the UK motorways instead. The final step was to release Nouveau to the warehouse of the importer, a day or two before the official launch – the cases were simply printed ‘Not for sale before the third Thursday of November’. Not as exciting as the Beaujolais Race, but in reality, a whole lot safer (and less exhausting for those working on the distribution).

So, now for the interesting (or perhaps amusing) part of the story. Yesterday Angela & I were in Madrid on business, and had an hour or two to kill before our return flight. We found ourselves in the Gourmet Food & Wine department of a famous department store, and you can imagine my surprise when I saw the Beaujolais Nouveau 2014 already on sale – a full two days before the official release date …. Ça va pas!