Beaujolais Nouveau: the wine France opens on the third Thursday of November

When is Beaujolais Nouveau Day?

On the third Thursday of November. In 2026 that is Thursday, 19 November. The wine can be sold from just after midnight, which is why the tradition in France is to open the first bottle at midnight.

The date is set by French rules, not by marketing. Selling the year’s new wine early was first allowed in 1951. In 1967 the release was fixed at 15 November, which kept landing on weekends, so in 1985 it moved to the third Thursday. Japan, one of its biggest markets, opens it first, thanks to the time difference.

What is Beaujolais Nouveau?

A vin primeur: a wine sold in the same autumn its grapes were picked. It is made from Gamay, usually by carbonic maceration. Whole bunches go into a tank filled with carbon dioxide and the grapes begin to ferment inside their own skins. The result is a light, purple, very fruity red with almost no tannin, the kind people describe with cherry, raspberry and, famously, banana.

About a third of the region’s wine each year is sold as nouveau. The rest is the serious Beaujolais: the crus such as Morgon and Fleurie, which are made to last for years.

Is it any good?

It is a party, not a cellar wine. Wine people are often sniffy about it, and some of the cheapest bottles deserve it. Others are bright, juicy and exactly right with a plate of saucisson on a cold Thursday evening. Judge it as what it is: a celebration of the harvest, drunk young, with friends.

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Which Beaujolais Nouveau should you buy?

Read the label. Four kinds come out on the same day:

The bottle you will see everywhere in America is Georges Duboeuf’s, with its flowered label: in 2025 the basic nouveau was listed at $15.99 and the Villages at $17.99. For something more interesting, ask for a small producer’s nouveau, such as Pardon & Fils, whose 2025 the critic Jancis Robinson’s team described as “raspberries and liquorice.”

How do you serve it?

Slightly cool: twenty minutes in the fridge brings it to about 13°C (55°F). In an ordinary wine glass, with food that does not try too hard: saucisson, pâté, French appetizers, a cheese board, roast chicken, lentils. And finish it before spring. It will not improve.

Beaujolais Nouveau and Thanksgiving

It lands exactly one week before Thanksgiving (26 November in 2026), and it is one of the easiest reds to put on that table: light enough for turkey, fruity enough for cranberry sauce, cheap enough to buy by the case. For the rest of the table, see our French Thanksgiving menu.

How the French celebrate it

In bistros and wine bars, mostly. Every year the same sign goes up in the windows: Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé. The third Thursday of November is a reason to stop at a bar after work, eat charcuterie and give an opinion on this year’s bottle. In the Beaujolais itself, villages celebrate the release with festivals; the best known is Les Sarmentelles, in Beaujeu, the region’s old capital.

It is also a good excuse for a raclette, the dinner that opens the French winter: how to do a raclette night at home.

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