Beaujolais Nouveau goes on sale at 12:01 a.m.

Had some Beaujolais Nouveau with colleagues after work today.

It was quite nice and, as always, had that beautiful pink/purple color.

I always chuckle at the foreigners in Japan who think they are oh-so-more-sophisticated than the Japanese in regards to wine drinking.

It's so boring to listen to grumpy foreigners giving us their "pearls of wisdom" about Beaujolais Nouveau.

I'd much rather enjoy a few glasses of it with laughter and friendship with my Japanese work colleagues...

1995 'vintage' BN, with a ¥3,000 price tag.

Drinking 10yo BN would be lik eating antique sushi.

Lets start selling them spam as "English wagyu" next. Or how about passing haddock off as "English fugu"? No, no, Ive got it - Ribena is fortified wine - thatll work.

If people attempt sarcasm they might at least try to make it funny...

These days there are so many types of wine from all over the world at reasonable prices (many undrinkable). Why is it that people buy this French plonk and pay through the nose? Amazed again

¥500 isn't bad, if it's a full bottle. My local off-license (before it unsurprisingly went out of business) for many years gave pride of place on its shelves to a bottle of 1995 'vintage' BN, with a ¥3,000 price tag.

600 wine enthusiasts

They're not wine enthusiasts. Wine 'enthusiasts' would not drink this muck if you paid them.

The good news is that the amount of this vinegar being imported is going down. Only seven million bottles this years as opposed to 12.5 million 7 years ago. This means that even the japanese can't be fooled forever.

Nouveau

All I need to know about this "wine". The nouveau in its title means it has been mixed with acetic acid (vinegar) to make it seem aged when actually it's far to young to drink. In short this is faux-wine, little more than grape juice mixed with vinegar and pushed out on the unsuspecting Japanese public.

Anyone who knows anything about wine wouldn't be caught drinking "nouveau" anything.

is this news or ad ? if this is news,makes you wonder what the fuss is about.

This means that even the japanese can't be fooled forever.

Shame. Ive enjoyed this huge joke over the years. Ah well, all good things come to an end I suppose.

the most overrated and pointless event in world wine.

Yabits, at Y500 a bottle, it's dirt-cheap here, too. And even at that sales have dropped off drastically in recent years.

So, it's onto the next unsuspecting countries for the BN PR machine. "Hey, China! Guess what!"

Still, I've always enjoyed the festivity and although I'll just stick to beer that night, it's nice to have the annual excuse for parties.

This means my local liquor store is going to suggest I buy this crap every time I go there for the next month. :-(

You'd think Australia/NZ would be first, but I guess that as they have some pretty good wines themselves, they don't need to 'celebrate'? ;) Then again, the chance of cheap drink at about midnight might keep the party fires burning a bit longer into the wee hours?

Wine out of a PET bottle? um...no. Just doesn't seem right.

why can't you buy 40's here?

So with the 'one coin' drinks, can we choose what kind of coin to use? I think I would choose a nice yellowish coin with a hole in the middle, or perhaps a compact aluminium one.

600 wine enthusiasts

I wonder how many know their wines.

The earlier the better. Let's get this over with.

weasel, you're bringing back some serious memories there. don't forget the md 20-20 & thunderbird.

This reflects just how misunderstood wine is in this country. BJ is silly wine for silly people who belong in the bubble age when this rubbish made an entry for the yuppies flush with money and no taste.

This years exports stats say that the 2nd biggest importing nation of 'silly people' is the USA 2.4 million bottles,and the 3rd you can try the spam as wagyu on is the Germans(1.2 )..thats a lot of dumb people who really should listen to the posters here and drink and enjoy what they're told to .

@Nicky, exotic wagyu Spam,

Okinawan cuisine holds Spam in special regard. I was at an Okinawan concert here in the Kansai area recently and--no joke--the merch table had rows of spam next to the sata andagi. Too funny.

Canned Spam can be found at specialty import foods shops--the same ones that probably sell this BN stuff. It's probably easier to buy Spam than the goya you need to complete the champuru recipe.

Was given two bottles of it last night as a gift, so I really can't complain (though the stuff is more or less swill). I still can't get over the PET bottle thing... makes a box of wine look relatively high-class.

Can't complain about the pet-bottle thing as I had wine from a cardboard box(plastic liner), etc.

Wine, etc no longer mature/improve once they are taken out of the casks, so the container they are sold in don't really matter taste-wise. Feeling, etc is another matter, more about presentation.

Said that not my taste in wines anyway.

I can buy grape juice right now, and I prefer it to this rancid French ripoff.

is this news or ad ? if this is news,makes you wonder what the fuss is about.

JT should open 'online' shop for this particular item only :)

Aussies have drunk from plastic casks for donkeys years..purpose there and here is to get plastered cheaply, as kindly as the taste buds allow..

I'm not sure if "surprised" or "amazed" is the right word to describe the popularity (and expense) of Beaujolais Nouveau in Japan. Definitely amazed at the price of the stuff, which is dirt-cheap here in the States -- with good reason.

Lets start selling them spam as "English wagyu" next. Or how about passing haddock off as "English fugu"? No, no, Ive got it - Ribena is fortified wine - thatll work.