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.

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.

[citation needed] Some members of the UIVB saw the potential for marketing Beaujolais nouveau by capitalizing on the fast distribution of the vintage, starting with a race to get the first bottles to Paris.

In the 1960s, races from English clubs rewarded the drivers who returned the quickest with the most wine (sometimes resulting in spare tyres being left in Beaujolais).

The wine is made using carbonic maceration,[6] whole berry anaerobic fermentation, which emphasizes fruit flavors without extracting bitter tannins from the grape skins.

In the United States, it is promoted as a drink for Thanksgiving, which always falls exactly one week after the wine is released (on the fourth Thursday of November).

[12] Historian Peter Stead argues that its rise in popularity there can be traced to the city's No Sign Bar in the 1960s, which was then owned by former Wales rugby union captain Clem Thomas, who owned a house in Burgundy and could transport Beaujolais quickly and cheaply to south Wales, and suggests that it reflected Swansea's efforts to "gentrify and intellectualise itself" at the time.

[17] Duboeuf has silk ties made each year with their label's abstract design, and releases them through select wholesalers and distributors.

[citation needed] In addition to the drinking of the Beaujolais Nouveau, its release represents an opportunity for chefs to cook with the wine.

Due to its very young age and fermentation method, the foods prepared with nouveau tend to be a bit more purple than red.

Nouveau will have very bright, fresh, red fruit flavors, such as cherry, strawberry, and raspberry, along with fruity ester flavours of banana, grape, fig, and pear drop.

It has been described as "wine of this vintage, fresh as the memory of harvest and raw as the experience of the year, unpolished by time, a reflection of the emotion of the moment".

For example, wine critic Karen MacNeil wrote that "Drinking it gives you the same kind of silly pleasure as eating cookie dough.

"[16] The commercial success of Beaujolais nouveau led to the development of other "primeur" wines in other parts of France, such as the Gaillac AOC near Toulouse.

In the United States, several vintners have produced Nouveau-style wines, using various grapes such as Gamay, Zinfandel, Tempranillo, Pinot noir, and even Riesling.