Each third Thursday of November, wine lovers from all corners of the world turn their eyes to France. They brave cold, wind, rain and snow in anticipation of that magic hour when the clock strikes midnight.
With corks popping and fireworks dazzling in the sky, the first bottle of 2001 Beaujolais Nouveau will be opened. The festival for Beaujolais Nouveau celebrates its 50th anniversary Thursday, in both France and Eugene.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine specially known for its light, fruity taste, and is produced after harvest just once every year.
Originally, there was no official date for the distribution of the Beaujolais Nouveau wine, and French villages celebrated the end of harvest at various times in October and November.
According to www.intowine.com, after many years of debated regulations and restrictions over the distribution of the Beaujolais Nouveau, the French government in 1951 officially recognized Nov. 15 as the release date for the special wine. The Web site also said the date was then changed in 1985 to the third Thursday in November in order to incorporate the weekend.
Oregon began celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau in the late 1980s, according to Simon Simonton, premise manager at Columbia Distributing Company in Eugene, and then grew to include wine samplings of the Oregon Pinot Noirs.
“(Beaujolais Nouveau) is a celebration of wine, friends and family,” he said.
Today, the Beaujolais Nouveau festival is celebrated over the long weekend in France by thousands of people whose only common thread may be their shared love of wine. From store windows to subway walls, posters announce that the Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived — “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivée!”
But for those who cannot make the trek to France this year, some restaurants, wineries and wine bars in Eugene will offer their own tributes to this French custom with wine tastings of a few of the Beaujolais Nouveau wines.
Like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, Air France will deliver cases of the Beaujolais Nouveau on Thursday to locations around the world, according to Armen Kevrekian, organizer of the yearly tasting at Ambrosia Restaurant and Bar.
Ambrosia has been holding Beaujolais Nouveau tastings for more than 10 years, he said.
On Thursday, wine lovers will descend into Ambrosia’s wine tasting room, reminiscent of a French “cave” with brick-lined walls, for an invitation-only wine tasting of the new vintage.
“It celebrates the end of the harvest,” Kevrekian said.
Kevrekian said he knows firsthand what it means to brave harsh weather for a bottle of wine. He said he began holding Beaujolais Nouveau tastings in 1978 at his restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska, and when the cases of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau were flown in, he would travel by dog sled to retrieve them.

Along with the Beaujolais Nouveau, Kevrekian said Ambrosia will also offer tastings of three to four Oregon Pinot Noirs.
Last year’s Beaujolais Nouveau earned high praise from both wine makers and wine lovers. The harvesting conditions were some of the best since 1976, according to French winemaker Georges Duboeuf on www.intowine.com. He said the combination of chilly mornings and hot afternoons created a “phenomenon of concentration” in the juices of the grapes.
“(Beaujolais Nouveau wine) is very light and fruity with a little bit of sweetness,” Simonton said. He also said Beaujolais Nouveau gives a true indication of the quality of the harvest.
During the 2000 Beaujolais Nouveau festival in France, hundreds of people flooded the streets of Villefranche-sur-Saône, a small town at the heart of Beaujolais country, to taste the first Beaujolais Nouveau of this century. Winemakers set up tables along the cobblestone road that runs through the center of town and invited passersby to critique their vineyards’ wines. The air was crisp and cold, and combined with the wine, it turned many cheeks and noses rosy.
As the sun set on the third day of the festival, the celebration had not lost any momentum. Several festival-goers disguised in elaborate costumes wove through the crowd in small parades. An orchestra began to play a lively tune and led the crowd toward the Hôtel de Ville (French for city hall) where more costumed people performed acrobatic feats from the windows of the building and the street lamps below.
Beaujolais Nouveau is not a wine to store in a cellar for years or decades at a time. It is a young wine made almost exclusively from gamay grapes and is meant to be drunk only a few weeks after the harvest of the grapes.
“There is nothing sophisticated or in-depth about (the wine),” said Alison Albrecht, organizer of the Beaujolais Nouveau tasting at Cornucopia Bottle Market. “Anyone can like it.”
Cornucopia will host a Beaujolais Nouveau wine tasting on Friday along with a hot, spiced German wine called Gluwein. The tastings are open to anyone and will be held at both its Monroe Street and 17th Avenue locations.
“It’s a great big party that comes from France,” Albrecht said. “It’s a taste of the new harvest, and you have to drink it all by the New Year.”