1st shipment of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in Japan

TOKYO — This year's first shipment of Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived from France at Tokyo's Haneda airport and Kansai airport in Osaka on Wednesday.

A spokesman for importer Suntory's wine division said 2,640 bottles arrived on an ANA flight at around 6:30 a.m.

Further shipments will arrive at Haneda, Narita, Kansai, Chubu, Fukuoka and Shin-Chitose airports over the next two weeks.

Japan will uncork the first Beaujolais Nouveau of the season at midnight on Nov 21. The wine will sell for around 3,256 yen per 750-milliliter bottle, the same as last year.

The third Thursday in November traditionally marks the official debut of the new season's Beaujolais around the world, and the Japanese are the first to get a taste of the light red wine because of their time zone, holding midnight parties.

Suntory plans to import about 457,000 bottles, or about 342,000 liters, a 17% increase from last year.

The record for Japan was 12.5 million bottles sold in 2004.

© Japan Today