Beaujolais Nouveau

Beaujolais nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is a vin de primeur, fermented just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November. Distributors famously race to get the first bottles to different global markets. As far back as the 1800s, Beaujolais growers would gather to celebrate the end of the harvest by toasting the vintage with some of the young wine produced that year (this is part of the French tradition of vin de primeur, or "early wines", released in the same year as harvest, which 55 appellations in France are allowed to produce). During this time, Lyonnais barkeepers and restaurateurs had been buying barrels of this new Beaujolais wine, which had been pressed in September and ready to serve in November. The new wine was served via pitchers dipped into barrels. The barrels were sometimes transported simply by floating them down the Saône river. Once the Beaujolais AOC was established in 1937, AOC rules meant that Beaujolais wine could only be officially sold after 15 December in the year of harvest. These rules were relaxed in November 1951, and the Union Interprofessionnelle des Vins du Beaujolais (Uivb) formally set 15 November as the release date for what would henceforth be known as Beaujolais nouveau. In 1985, the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO) established the third Thursday of November to allow for a uniform release date for the wine.

Source: Wikipedia