Brand Mix

Brilliant marketing campaign or insiduos reputation destroyer? This year's Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived.

Described here as "nothing more than pleasantly tart barroom swill", Beaujolais Nouveau benefits from a marketing blitz like no other. That's because it's this year's wine and, by law, can't be sold before the third Thursday of November setting up the opportunity to make the wine's arrival a real event.

It started as a race to Paris with different teams competing to get the first bottle to the city and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. "Beaujolais Mania" has since died down but it's still a big seasonal seller.

Winners are the local Nouveau growers who benefit from a quick financial return on their harvest. Losers are the growers who have stuck with the other, far higher quality wines of the region. These wines have been buried in all the deluge of attention for Beaujolais Nouveau, bargains for those in the know but suffering from association with their much better known, lower class but more popular cousin.