One minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November, the world’s greatest wine celebration begins. From the quaint villages of Beaujolais, just north of Lyon, more than a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau set out across a sleeping France to Paris, ready for immediate shipment to every corner of the world. And each year, New Zealand is the very first country to raise a glass of this fresh new vintage. Among the rolling hills and tiny villages just south of Burgundy and north of Lyon, France, lies Beaujolais. The region is synonymous with Gamay, the area’s most-planted grape. Traditionally, winemakers would ferment Gamay grapes quickly after harvest (an unusually tight timeframe in winemaking terms) to create a light, fresh and fruity red wine. This early bottling was a way to celebrate the end of the grape-picking season. The wine wasn't intended for ageing—it was enjoyed locally by workers and villages in the area, offering a first taste of the year's harvest. In the 1950s, French law officially allowed the early release of these wines, and by the 1970s, the third Thursday in November had become a unifying date for its launch. This timing, just before the holiday season, turned it into a festive tradition across France and beyond. Gradually, the early release wine started to appear at local cafés and bistros in Lyon, and other towns around the Beaujolais region, who would buy these wines by the barrel. Then, the Parisians discovered Beaujolais Nouveau and the race was on. Who could deliver the new vintage harvest to Paris first? Soon thereafter, winemakers began to compete with one another via mass marketing campaigns, and Beaujolais Nouveau Day had its own slogan, “Le nouveau est arrivé.” By the 1980s, droves of wine drinkers across the world were toasting glasses of Beaujolais Nouveau.