Beaujolais Nouveau 2026: The Most Celebrated New Wine in the World

Ask most wine drinkers what they think of Beaujolais Nouveau and you will hear the same words: thin, commercial, a novelty. And for a time, in the 1980s and 1990s, that verdict was fair. But ask someone who has tried a good one recently - really tried one, young and lightly chilled on a cold November evening - and you tend to get a different answer.

There is a reason this wine has been released on the third Thursday of November every single year since 1951. There is a reason bars and restaurants from Tokyo to Sydney to New York mark its arrival. And there is a reason that, here in Somerset, we have been pre-ordering it for our customers for years and sell out a little earlier each time. Beaujolais Nouveau deserves a fresh look.

Where it all began

Beaujolais sits in a strip of land between Burgundy to the north and Lyon to the south, in the east of France. The soil here is granite and clay, and the grape is Gamay: a light-skinned, aromatic variety that was famously banished from Burgundy in the fourteenth century by a ducal decree calling it a "disloyal plant". It found its natural home in Beaujolais, where it has thrived ever since.

For most of its history, the new wine from Beaujolais was released as soon as fermentation was complete, consumed locally, and thought nothing more of. Then, in the years after the Second World War, wine merchants in Lyon began a friendly competition: who could get the new vintage to the city cafes first? The races were celebrated, the new wine was talked about, and slowly a date was formalised. By 1951 the French government had set an official release, and Beaujolais Nouveau was born.

For the first few decades it remained a French affair, a date to toast the harvest with a glass of something young and lively before the serious business of winter got underway. Then, in the 1970s and early 1980s, British importers and a handful of energetic publicans turned it into an event. Cases were flown to London on the morning of release. Chefs and journalists wrote about it. Within a few years it was global, and the phrase Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé was being shouted in bars on five continents.

The years in between

Success, as it often does in wine, brought problems. Production was scaled up to meet demand, and corners were cut. Some of the larger négociants began making wine that was light, sweet, simple and, frankly, not very good. Critics piled on. By the late 1990s, Beaujolais Nouveau had become something of a punchline, and volumes fell sharply. The restaurants and wine bars that had once rushed to get it on their lists quietly stopped ordering it.

But here is what changed while the press was looking elsewhere. The smaller, quality-focused growers who had always made good Nouveau kept making it. The techniques that produce the very best examples, particularly whole-bunch carbonic maceration, which keeps tannins silky and preserves the bright, fresh fruit, were refined rather than abandoned. And a new generation of wine drinkers, less attached to the judgements of a previous era and more interested in trying things for themselves, began picking up bottles with open minds.

The result is that the best Beaujolais Nouveau being made today is better than it has ever been. There are growers producing wines of genuine character from old vines on granite soils, using minimal intervention and organic methods, releasing them young and vibrant in the way this style was always intended to be enjoyed. These are not wines to dismiss.

The technique behind the freshness

To understand why good Beaujolais Nouveau tastes the way it does, it helps to know how it is made. The Gamay grapes are harvested in whole bunches and placed in sealed tanks filled with carbon dioxide, rather than being crushed first. Fermentation begins inside each individual berry, which draws out colour and fruit flavours while leaving the tannins behind. The result is a wine that is bright, juicy and soft: the opposite of a big, structured red. It is a technique that demands careful attention and good fruit to work at its best.

The process is also deliberately fast. From picking to bottling takes weeks rather than months, which is how the wine arrives on shelves just after the harvest ends. That speed is part of its charm, and part of what makes it genuinely interesting to wine lovers: in a good Nouveau, you can taste the vintage. A warm, dry summer in Beaujolais shows up as richer fruit and more body. A cooler year produces something lighter and more floral. It is wine as a snapshot of a season, taken while the paint is still wet.

2026: what to expect

This year's wine comes from Jean-Michel Dupré, whose vineyards sit above the village of Beaujeu, in the heart of the appellation and the place the region takes its name from. He farms four appellations organically, keeping added sulphites to a minimum, and his Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau reflects that care: bright and juicy, with fresh strawberry, raspberry and cherry fruit, soft tannins and a lively, refreshing finish. Serve it lightly chilled, 12 to 13 degrees, and it is exactly the kind of glass you want in your hand on a dark November evening.

The release date this year, as ever set by French regulation, is Thursday 19 November 2026. Pre-orders are already open, and based on previous years we expect to sell out before release day.

Why Beaujolais is especially big in Wales (and what that means for us)

One corner of the UK where Beaujolais Nouveau never really fell out of favour is South Wales. The strong Franco-Welsh cultural ties that date back to the nineteenth century, when thousands of Welsh workers settled in Patagonia alongside French communities, and a long tradition of French language education in Welsh schools, have kept a genuine warmth toward French wine culture alive in cities like Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. The third Thursday of November is genuinely anticipated in Welsh wine circles in a way you do not always find elsewhere in Britain.

We have noticed it too. South Wales is not far from us here in Somerset, and last year we received a pleasing number of orders from that direction around Nouveau time. If you are in the area and looking for a good bottle of the 2026, we would be happy to have it on its way to you from release day.

How to enjoy it

Beaujolais Nouveau is one of the few reds that genuinely benefits from a little time in the fridge. Twenty to thirty minutes before serving brings it to around 12 to 13 degrees, which lifts the fruit and makes it wonderfully refreshing. It is a wine for drinking young: the whole point is the freshness of the new vintage, and it is at its best over the winter months following release. There is no need to lay it down.

On the table it is remarkably versatile. Charcuterie is the classic match, and for good reason: the bright acidity cuts through cured meat beautifully. Roast chicken, a relaxed Friday evening pizza, a decent cheese board: all work well. It is also the kind of wine that drinks well on its own, without food, which is perhaps why it has always found its natural home in the bar rather than the restaurant.

The most joyful date in the wine calendar

The critics who dismissed Beaujolais Nouveau were not entirely wrong. There were years, and there were producers, who gave them every reason to be sceptical. But the dismissal became a reflex, and reflexes stop you tasting clearly.

What Beaujolais Nouveau has always been, at its best, is a celebration: of the harvest just completed, of the grower who worked through the growing season, and of the simple pleasure of a glass of something young, fresh and full of life on a cold autumn evening. The third Thursday of November is as good an excuse as any to open a bottle and raise a glass to the new vintage. Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé.

Pre-order the 2026 now and your bottles will be on their way from release day, Thursday 19 November.