At 12.01 a.m. on 15 November – the third Thursday in November – the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau will be opened. It’s illegal in France to sell it before that date and time, but once the hour is struck festivities lasting in some places for five days will begin across the country. They start with the legendary race to get the first bottles from Beaujeu, the capital of the Beaujolais region, originally to Paris, but now to many other points on the globe. Only French savoir faire and Gallic joie de vivre could make a nationwide party out of selling more than 30 million bottles of unimposing, barely two-months-old red wine.