"Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!"

[mccutcheon]

Paris (dpa) - As a marketing idea, few have matched the selling of
Beaujolais Nouveau wines.
You start with a particularly light version of the generally light
Beaujolais wines, set a date for its "official"
launch and turn that date into a custom of special significance.
Then you rely on the western penchant for conspicuous consumption and
an almost religious belief in French taste to do
the rest.
The result? This year, on the third Thursday in November, the launch of
the Beaujolais Nouveau will again be celebrated
by millions of people around the world - not bad for a wine some
critics have compared to fruit punch or grape juice.
The Beaujolais region comprises some 1,750 square kilometres in the
centre of France and produces fruity wines of
varying degrees of complexity and character, although almost all of
them are relatively light in body and meant to be
consumed chilled.
Like all of the region's wines, the Beaujolais Nouveau is made
exclusive from a Gamay Noir grape variety.
However, it is macerated in a vat for only four to five days.
If the wine is drawn off too early, it will be too light and lacking in
colour; if it is vatted just three hours too
long, its tannins will be too hard and the wine taste
uncharacteristically astringent.
Following the second fermentation, and just one month after the
harvest, the Beaujolais Nouveau wines are filtered and
bottled.
The product of this special vinification process is an easy-to-drink,
lightly aromatic wine that - unlike more respected
French wines - does not improve with age.
In fact, it does not age at all, becoming virtually undrinkable a few
months after its release.
But largely due to the brilliant marketing strategy, Beaujolais Nouveau
production has increased exponentially over the
years, from a mere 15,000 hectolitres in 1951 to 450,000 today.
Beaujolais Nouveau was born 50 years ago, after a government decree
stipulated that "producers are not authorised to
release the wines from the 1951 harvest ... before December 15, 1951".
In October, the wine makers of Beaujolais requested permission to sell
their wines straight away, insisting that they
were "early drinking wines".
Their request was granted.
On November 13, 1951, a note from the Tax Office stated the conditions
in which certain wines could be sold without
waiting for the official release date two months later.
The Beaujolais was among them, and November 13 is now considered the
official birthday of the Beaujolais Nouveau.
In 1985, a regulation changed the official consumption date for
Beaujolais Nouveau (and other, similar wines) from
midnight November 15 to midnight of the third Thursday in November.
Perhaps more significant, the wine's marketing history began in 1959
with the creation of the Inter-Professional Union
for Beaujolais Wines (UIVB), which directed Beaujolais Nouveau
promotional action from 1960 on.
Six years later, the first "Beaujolais Nouveau launch" was organized in
Paris. By 1976, the event had become a popular
custom in the bars and bistros of the French capital.
The concept was quickly adopted by local wine brokers in Europe and
North America, who were no doubt more impressed by
the celebration's commercial possibilities than by the product itself.
The idea spread quickly. In 1982, Australians learned to say "Le
Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive" (The Beaujolais Nouveau
is here), and three years later the slogan caught on with the Japanese.
This year, restaurants and bistros in Bangkok, Thailand, will be
joining the celebration for the first time, as the
Beaujolais Nouveau phenomenon continues is astonishing conquest of the
world.

[Kyle]

I was in Paris in '95 on the day when they new Beaujolais came out. I went out and just got loaded! Went out to a bunch of cafes that all had up these big "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive" banners and everybody was getting drunk and shouting "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive". I tried to walk home at 2 AM and I just couldn't make it, so I laid down next to the Seine, flat on my back, right in front of Notre Dame still clutching a bottle of the new Beaujolais in my hand. I didn't really pass out. I was just trying to let Paris get all the spinning around my head out of its system, when some guy sees me and freaks out, thinking I'm hurt. "Oh my God! What happened to you what happened" (Mon Dieu Qu'est-ce qui c'est passe? Qu'est-ce qui c'est passe?" Not able to get up, or provide any more explanation than this, I simply raised the bottle I was still holding in my right hand and said(slurred) meekly: "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivee"
He chuckled, took a sip and walked away. I fell asleep under a bridge.

[This message has been edited by Kyle (edited 12-03-2001).]

[sarah]

I first visited France in the spring of '95 -- I was welcomed by a short round jolly French man who may have said "Mon deiu" in the flower market of Nice -- he grabbed me by both my shoulders and kissed me while saying something French, which was lost on me, so I just kissed him back. I know he had to lean up to kiss me -- tall and skinny meets short and round. -- he's the only short man i've ever kissed

The hubby says Polish women are the most beautiful on the earth -- go figure, I thought I was, and I'm American!!

[mccutcheon]

In '95 in Paris I had a Polish model in my French class. All she could say was "Mon Dieu!" (My God!) When the teacher asked what she did on the weekend or what her favorite food was the answer was always the same. My God!

To look at her you would say the same thing. My God!

She told me her mother was also a model and in the 70's was allowed to go into Paris from behind the Iron Curtain and was followed by secret agents and spies from the Polish side. She told me her mother had to occasionally sleep with these men to remain in Paris and one of them was her father, whom she never met. Ironically, when her mother got pregnant she was forced back to Poland. Now this was the daughters first time (back) to the French Capital.

We went out one night just walking around sex shops and riding the Metro. We went to a record shop and I purchased The Birthday Party albums for her. We bought a bottle of Vodka and she drank it like water. This girl was very fragile- tall and super thin the way models are, but she just punched her stomach and ended up drinking about 3/4ths the vodka. She said Polish women have stomachs like rocks. Later in the night we were standing in the corner of a Metro car making out when she surprisingly fell to the floor. I tried to revive her but she was out cold. At the next station I stepped over her and got off. I never saw her again.

Mon Dieu!

[mccutcheon]

...to clarify, I didn't leave her on the Metro. I was just trying to be funny.