Beaujolais Nouveau Day

On the third Thursday of every November, at one minute past midnight, wine bars and cellars across the Beaujolais region — and increasingly, across the world — pour the very first bottles of that year's Beaujolais Nouveau. The wine is famously young, made from Gamay grapes harvested just weeks earlier and rushed through fermentation specifically so it can be ready in time for its own release day.

What began in the mid-twentieth century as a local marketing idea has grown into a genuinely international event, with midnight release parties held as far afield as Tokyo and New York, racing to be among the first to pour the new vintage.

In the Beaujolais region itself, the day is treated as a proper local festival — vineyards and villages host tastings, live music and communal meals, celebrating a wine that's never been about ageing potential so much as simple, immediate, of-the-moment pleasure.