Beaujolais Nouveau made from the Gamay grape produced in the Beaujolais region of France. 
This wine is fermented just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November. This Beaujolais Nouveau Day used to see heavy marketing, with races to get the first bottles
to different markets around the globe. This special wine occasion started in the 1950’s The various wine makers were in a race to see who could get their wine to Paris first! Then in the 1970’s, winemaker and business man Georges Duboeuf, pushed and publicized the wine and the associated festivities. Banners proclaiming
Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! 
I remember working at my first wine retail store in the 1970s, that the arrival of the first Beaujolais Nouveau was a major event. At that time, there were only 3 or 4 French wine producers that were involved. I still remember the first time I tasted a Beaujolais Nouveau. It was something that I have not tasted before. It was light, it was fruity, it had a slight sparkle to it, it wasnt dry, yet it wasnt sweet. Your mouth was treated to all this goodness and it was tasting one of the freshest things you can think of. The finish was not lingering, but the taste made you want to have another sip and another and another.
In the late 1990’s, there were probably over 20 different wine houses that were making this wine. Still everyone rushing to get to be the first to reach the states!. It was a fun event and fun time. We used to advertise weeks before the arrival, like posting the arrival of a new born baby. People used to ask us daily, When is it coming in? The first to arrive at our store would get top billing, the best display area in the store! We had signs and banners surrounding the display, plus had bottles all over the counter. 
BUT something happened! And to me, it was not a good thing. That joyful , delicious , fun wine changed. Now it was becoming a dull rather sweet wine, lacking any character, void of any effervescent. It was disappointing. At first, I thought it might have been that particular wine maker, but then tasking the nouveau time after time from different wine houses, it was all the same.
It became a semi sweet wine with almost no characteristics.
The worst part of this, besides the major disappointment of such a fun wine, was the way the wine was handled in the retail shops. The original Beaujolais Nouveau’s were meant to be consumed before Christmas. So, basically, they had about a month shelf time. Most retail owners, banking on the popularity of this wine, would be cases and cases from several different wine makers.
Customers started to shy away from these wines now, but the retailer was left with 20 or 30 or more cases of the wine. And thus they sat and sat, on the floor, in a out of the wine display area. I used to taste one of these each month to see what was happening to them. By the beginning of Spring, these wines were basically non descriptive and probably best used for cooking or for making wine vinegar!.
Such a shame, It was a total joy and then it was lost
Why, I really dont know, I dont know who or where to place the blame. I think, just the commercial hype in getting these wines to America as fast as possible, had something to do with their downfall.
Perhaps, some day, there will be another wine, another nouveau that can be as exciting as the Beaujolais Nouveau’s from the 1970’s were.
