This Wednesday I took a mini-trip with other foreign exchange students at my university to witness the opening of the 2011 Beaujolais wine. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but had heard from some other students that last year’s trip was one of their fondest memories from their time abroad, so I wasn’t about to miss it.
We loaded onto buses in the early afternoon and headed to a co-op facility where farmers can bring their grapes for fermentation. A proud French man showed us around the facilities, but unfortunately I didn’t hear a lot of what he said and didn’t understand the rest. I didn’t think to learn some wine vocabulary beforehand! But I’m sure it would have been helpful.
After the tour, we had a wine tasting and hopped back on the bus, which took us to the village of Beaujeu, where the festivities of the night were to take place. By that time, it was only about 6:30—we had several more hours ahead of us before they opened the new wine. The night was pretty cold, so a couple of us decided to find a restaurant and have a long, leisurely dinner before going around to the wine vendors’ tents, which were set up around the main square.
We scoured the village (as in, walked up and down the main street) for a restaurant. The only one we found had a prix-fixe menu of 28 Euros for dinner—which was a little out of the price range we were anticipating to find. So instead we hit up the carnival-type food stalls set up for the occasion. I had a great piece of gingerbread, with pieces of real ginger root baked in. Delicious!
After eating (which unfortunately took all of 15 minutes and didn’t bring us out of the cold like we’d hoped), we went into a large white tent where wine vendors were giving tastings. We went up to a vendor, presented a glass, and had a free taste. Between sips we huddled together and talked about how cold it was outside, and how glad we were to be in the tent. But still, it was so cold inside that I kept my gloves on and prayed I wouldn’t drop my glass. It was pretty fun, but then they ran out of wine and people cleared out of the tent. We didn’t know what we were going to do for the next 5 hours.
It was so cold that we—probably over a hundred foreign exchange students—herded into a bar and camped out there for several hours. At about 11pm, we ventured back into the cold. While we were defrosting in the warmth, crowds of people had made their way into the streets.
Exactly at midnight, they tapped the barrel of new Beaujolais wine, behind which was a massive fountain of wine. Between the fireworks display, an infectious enthusiasm, the tribal drumbeat, and the torches—it really felt like New Year’s! Watch my video to get a taste of what it was like.
We stayed in the street for about 40 minutes, dancing and hanging out. That was by far the most fun I had of the night. Everyone was so happy to be there, celebrating wine. Then at 1 am, we met up with our coordinators, loaded back into the buses, and headed back to Lyon. I passed out immediately, I was so tired. When I woke up, we were back.
I smile now when I walk by wine stores proudly displaying the new Beaujolais in the window. As nice as it is to be able to buy this year’s wine, you just couldn’t beat the experience of watching them open up that brand new barrel.
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Read my Lyon posts (from packing until now) :
Packin’ It Up
How do you say, “stressful,” in French?
A Saturday in Vieux Lyon
Journées du Patrimoine
Problems with Paperwork
Sittin’ in a Café
At the Movies with Gérard Depardieu
Break for Barcelona
Biking Around Town
Bon Voyage!
No Place Like Home
Finals in France
And for the rest of the week, visit my blog, à mi-chemin.