Beaujolais Nouveau Day 2026: What It Is and Where to Celebrate

Beaujolais Nouveau is released at one minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November, which in 2026 means Thursday, November 19. It is a young Gamay bottled a few weeks after harvest, and its release turned into a party long ago: torch parades in the Beaujolais hills, tastings in Lyon, and bottles opened the same day in wine bars from Tokyo to New York.

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What Beaujolais Nouveau is

Beaujolais Nouveau is a red wine from the Beaujolais, the hilly stretch of vineyards between Lyon and the southern tip of Burgundy. It is made from Gamay, a grape that gives bright, low-tannin reds with plenty of acidity, and it is the opposite of a wine you lay down: it goes from vine to bottle in roughly six to eight weeks.

The speed comes from the method. The grapes, which by law are picked by hand, go into the tank as whole bunches, and much of the fermentation starts inside the uncrushed berries, under a blanket of carbon dioxide. Winemakers call it carbonic maceration. It pulls color and fruit out of the skins without much tannin, and it gives the wine its signature aromas: cherry, strawberry and raspberry, often with a note of banana or pear drop.

That is also why the bottle on the shelf is not a wine to keep. Beaujolais Nouveau is at its best in the months after release and does not improve with age. Serve it lightly chilled, around 55°F (13°C), which is cooler than most people serve red wine and the single change that makes it taste fresher.

Beaujolais Nouveau Day 2026: the date and the rule behind it

Beaujolais Nouveau Day falls on Thursday, November 19, 2026. Under French rules the new wine can be sold from 12:01 a.m. on the third Thursday of November, a uniform date set in 1985. Before that the release was tied to November 15, and before 1951 Beaujolais could not be sold until mid-December at all; the early release was a relaxation of those rules, and the growers quickly turned it into an event.

For decades the release was announced with a slogan that is still printed on posters across France, Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé, “the new Beaujolais has arrived.” Fixing the day on a Thursday made it a fixture of the calendar, and in the United States it lands exactly one week before Thanksgiving, which in 2026 is Thursday, November 26.

The 2026 vintage: early, hot and short

The 2026 Beaujolais Nouveau comes from a difficult year. Hail hit a large part of the vineyard in mid-July, then heatwaves and drought followed, and the official start of the harvest was set for August 13, almost a week earlier than in 2025 and more than three weeks earlier than in 2024. Trade press reports put the region’s crop about 10% below 2025, with some growers reporting yields far below normal.

A hot year in Beaujolais usually means riper, rounder wines with a little more alcohol, and two of the early 2026 bottlings announced so far come in at 13% and 13.5%. Smaller volumes also mean fewer bottles to go around, so the best-known names may sell through faster than usual. The young wine is a snapshot of the year rather than a verdict on it: the vintage will be judged properly on the cru wines from Morgon, Fleurie or Moulin-à-Vent, which are released later.

Where to celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau in France

The largest party is Les Sarmentelles de Beaujeu, five days of festivities in the small town that gave the region its name, run by some 300 volunteers. In 2026 it opens on Wednesday, November 18, with a tasting trail of the twelve Beaujolais appellations from 5 to 9 p.m. (€15, glass and evening concert included). At 11 p.m. a torch-lit parade leads to the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville for the percée, the tapping of the first barrel, followed by a dance that runs past the official release at midnight.

The rest of the week is built around food and wine: a market and estate visits on Thursday, lunches and themed dinner evenings from Thursday to Saturday, a growers’ wine fair from Friday afternoon to Sunday, a natural wine fair on Saturday and Sunday, and a family day to close on Sunday, November 22. Most meals and evenings are ticketed separately, and the Wednesday dinners sell out first, so book through the festival site before you travel.

Lyon celebrates too. Beaujol’en Scène fills the Place des Terreaux on November 18 and 19, 2026, and the regional wine body, Inter Beaujolais, lists tastings across the region that week, including a large Beaujolais Nouveau tasting at La Maison des Beaujolais. In the city itself, the wine bars and the bouchons, Lyon’s traditional bistros, are the obvious places to try the new wine with a plate of charcuterie.

How to celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau in the US

The United States is one of the wine’s biggest export markets, second only to Japan, and the bottles shipped for the release are on sale the same Thursday. You do not need a festival to mark it: wine shops and French restaurants often hold release-day tastings, and the simplest version of the tradition is a few bottles, lightly chilled, opened with friends on the evening of November 19.

Food is where Beaujolais Nouveau earns its place. Its low tannin and juicy acidity work with charcuterie, roast chicken, pork, mild cheeses and the sort of mixed table that defeats heavier reds, which is why it is so often poured at Thanksgiving a week later. If you want to compare it with what the region does with more time, open a bottle of a Beaujolais cru alongside it: the same grape, with far more depth.

Tasting in the Beaujolais that week

If you travel for the release, the easiest way to see the vineyards without driving after a tasting is a guided tour from Lyon. A half-day guided tour with Beaujolais tastings starts from $113 per person, and the same operator runs a full day in the Beaujolais cellars from $181. For the story of how Beaujolais became famous abroad, Le Hameau Duboeuf, the wine park in Romanèche-Thorins founded by the house that did most to export Beaujolais Nouveau, takes tickets from $23.

If you would rather drive yourself, plan the days so the tasting comes last, or share the driving: French limits are lower than in most US states, as our guide to renting a car for a wine trip in Europe explains. The release also falls a few days after Burgundy’s biggest wine weekend: the Fête des Grands Vins de Bourgogne and the Hospices de Beaune wine auction fill Beaune, further north, the weekend before, so one trip can cover both.

Where to stay for Beaujolais Nouveau

Beaujeu is a small town and its rooms go early in release week, so most visitors either stay in the surrounding villages, in Villefranche-sur-Saône, or in Lyon and come up for the night of the barrel tapping. If you stay in Lyon, check the last train or book a taxi in advance: the parade and the tapping run late, and the release itself is at midnight.

Beaujolais Nouveau 2027: the next date

Because the rule is the third Thursday of November, the next release can be put in the calendar now: Beaujolais Nouveau 2027 arrives on Thursday, November 18, 2027, a week before Thanksgiving again. When the Sarmentelles publish their 2027 program, we will update this page with the new dates and with what the 2026 wine turned out to be like.

If the Beaujolais Nouveau gets you curious about the region’s other wines, the winter calendar continues just to the north, with the Saint-Vincent Tournante in Burgundy at the end of January. The young wine is a party; the crus and the Burgundy villages are the reason to come back.

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The Hospices de Beaune Wine Auction: A Visitor’s Guide Fête des Grands Vins de Bourgogne 2026: How to Attend Saint-Vincent Tournante 2027: How to Do the Volnay Weekend