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The story
France’s new-vintage wine, Beaujolais Nouveau, arrived at Haneda Airport on September 28 for its traditional unveiling. France was hit by a record-breaking heatwave this year, pushing the grape harvest up by about a month, but the release date remains unchanged at November 19. On 5ch threads, this perennial seasonal topic drew the usual buzz — though the conversation focused less on the wine’s taste and more on distribution and business angles: rising prices in recent years, accusations of “marketing over substance,” and price/satisfaction comparisons with other imported wines and Japanese sake.
9/28 (Mon) 9:09
Kyodo News
Beaujolais Nouveau, France’s new-vintage wine, arrived at Haneda Airport on the 28th, where an unveiling event was held. France was hit by record-breaking heat from a heatwave this year, pushing this year’s grape harvest earlier than usual. The wine arrived about a month ahead of schedule, but the release date remains unchanged at November 19.
Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Which is it, "Beaujolais Nouveau" or "Bojorē Nouveau"? (debate over how to spell the French name phonetically in Japanese)
My phone's IME keeps suggesting "Bojorē Nouveau" as the first option though
It's not so much that both are "correct" — it's more that different outlets just spell it differently, which makes no sense.
Apparently in actual French pronunciation, "Bojore" without the long vowel sounds more natural.
Every single year.
The fact that you remember they do this every year means you're pretty into it yourself.
Nobody in France is dumb enough to actually drink Beaujolais Nouveau, let alone fly it in and pay premium prices for it.
They're looking at us Japanese and going
"pfft, hehe"
behind our backs.
So of course they serve it fresh right away — what else would you expect, duh.
Beaujolais has poor soil that isn't suited to growing Pinot Noir, the grape normally used for serious wine.
So they grow Gamay instead and manufacture value through speed — using a special rapid fermentation method (carbonic maceration) to make it as fast as possible.
It's a "special wine" that was never meant to be aged in the first place.
Aging Beaujolais Nouveau doesn't add much value.
If you just want fresh-picked, cheap bottled wine is plenty tasty — that already covers it.
"Nouveau" or "Nouvo," either works.
That's just how Japanese is.
"Nuvo" works too (yes, like the old Morinaga candy)
https://www.morinaga.co.jp/museum/history/detail/img/images/detail/article_142.png
What's actually inside is "Kiri no Ukifune" (a cheap sake brand), you know.
You get to drink the year's release before anywhere else in the world.
It's probably similar to "arabashiri" in sake (the first unfiltered pressing of the season).
Between the weak yen and the whole Russia-Ukraine situation,
prices roughly doubled in 2022 (starting around ¥3,850).
Then in 2023 they came down about 15%, and it's been flat ever since.
There's no better value-for-money wine out there.
Chile's vines were originally transplanted from Bordeaux.
Thanks to the TPP it's cheap in Japan,
but in Europe high tariffs make it several times the price of European wine.
Meanwhile French wine grapes are degrading due to global warming,
and even the French are drinking less wine these days.
Just think of it as basically a "new product launch" and you're good.
Thinking that once I retire, I might get into wine as a hobby.
When you buy this and drink it, make sure to say "oooh!" and really lose yourself in the moment.
If you're going to spend that kind of money on Beaujolais, you'd get more satisfaction from a nice Rhône wine or a good Chilean bottle instead.
Sommeliers probably think that deep down too, but they can't say it out loud — bad for business.
The crowd that cares about quality and the crowd that buys Nouveau are just different customers.
It used to be something you could buy casually and enjoy, but idiots started hyping it up with talk of "vintage" and "once-in-a-century harvest," and that's what soured everyone on it.
Now it's ¥3,000-5,000.
I'm honestly amazed people still buy that stuff.
If you're spending ¥3,000 on alcohol, you could get a daiginjo (premium sake) instead.
Sake is just tastier than wine, honestly.
Feels like you might as well go cheap on wine anyway.
I like cheap wine, but personally wine agrees with me more than sake does.
Though lately I've just been drinking whiskey highballs and beer lol
With wine, unless you spend around ¥5,000 at a liquor store or ¥10,000 at a bar, you won't hit that "wow, this is good!" bottle.
If you know what you're doing you can find a good one for about ¥3,000.
But if you're spending ¥3,000, sake tastes better for the money.
So why did "Nouveau" of all things become the thing everyone prizes?
Am I the only one who thinks that's kind of a waste?
Beaujolais' soil just can't grow grapes that make genuinely great wine.
So they decided to sell it as "Nouveau" instead — not-that-great wine, marketed on speed rather than quality.
Background and Discussion Points
Beaujolais Nouveau is a new-vintage wine made from Gamay grapes grown in France’s Beaujolais region and fermented over a short period. As the thread explained, the region’s soil isn’t suited to producing age-worthy wine, so its commercial value instead comes from a rapid fermentation method (carbonic maceration). While the release date stays fixed every year, the weak yen and rising import costs have pushed retail prices up into the several-thousand-yen range, and more voices are distancing themselves from its old image as a “fun, casual seasonal buy.” The thread’s discussion centered less on the taste itself and more on the strength of the marketing behind it, along with comparisons to similarly priced Chilean wines and Japanese sake. The heatwave-driven early harvest is also cited as one more example of how global warming is affecting grape-growing in recent years.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “[Wine] Beaujolais Nouveau Arrives at Haneda — Heatwave Pushes Harvest a Month Early, Release Date Unchanged.”
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