AT ONE MINUTE PAST MIDNIGHT on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Romanèche-Thorins, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau begin their journey through a sleeping France to Paris for immediate shipment to all parts of the world. Banners proclaim the good news: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! "The New Beaujolais has arrived!"

One of the most frivolous and animated rituals in the wine world has begun. By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region's total annual production, will be distributed and drunk around the world. It has become a worldwide race to be the first to serve to this new wine of the harvest. In doing so, it has been carried by motorcycle, balloon, truck, helicopter, Concorde jet, elephant, runners and rickshaws to get it to its final destination. It is amazing to realize that just weeks before this wine was a cluster of grapes in a growers vineyard., but by an expeditious harvest, a rapid fermentation, and a speedy bottling, all is ready at the midnight. It began when Caesar's army crossed the Alps and into Gaul in the 1st century B.C., they built temples, aqueducts, amphitheatres and roads. Along those roads, Rome's army planted the vine. There is still evidence today in Brouilly and Morgon of those Roman vineyards.

After Rome left, the area was invaded by the Barbarians and then the Arabs who tended the vines and enjoyed the fruits. Founded in the 10th century by the powerful nobility that created the principality, the town of Beaujeu in the western hills of Beaujolais, gives the region its name. It was ruled by the Dukes of Beaujeu until it was ceded to the Bourbonnais in 1400. The region really began to develop an identity distinct from its northern neighbour Burgundy, after Philippe the Bold made his famous decree in July 1395, outlawing the Gamay grape and forbidding its cultivation in the great duchy of Burgundy proper. So Burgundy went with Pinot Noir and Beaujolais went with Gamay. Although the edict was not at all popular with the growers of his day, it proved to be a good thing for each of the two regions.

Here in Beaujolais, the Gamay grape is in its element. From the 16th century onwards, the grape gradually became the dominant crop of the region. This was aided largely by improvements in transportation. As transportation improved the market expanded. For centuries, Lyon was the region's principle market. A crucial development for the economy was the opening of the Braire Canal to link the Loire and the Seine Rivers. Now Beaujolais was only two or three days journey by wagon to a water route that would take the wine all the way to Paris.