Not many may know, but the name Beaujolais Nouveau dates back to the 1950s. In November 1951, the Union Interprofessionnelle des Vins du Beaujolais (UIVB) formally set 15th November as the release date for what would henceforth become known as Beaujolais Nouveau.
Flip forward 30 years to the Nouveau sales heyday of the 1980s, the shipping of the annual Beaujolais Nouveau vintage was arguably the single most important operation in the UK wine trade’s calendar.
Coming as it did slap bang in the middle of Q4 and the rush of Christmas trade, merchants up and down the country bent over backwards to ensure that their supply of the years’ freshly-released Beaujolais would be with them ahead of anyone else’s.
The just-has-to-be-there wines would be the centrepiece for UK wine companies to entertain the gathered ranks of media and eager consumers at specially arranged Nouveau breakfasts on the third Thursday morning every November.
As well as the sights and sounds of delivery vans and lorries pulling into their final destinations, the sighs of relief and sound of descending stress levels from expectant wholesalers was palpable.
Importers finally got their hands on the precious cargo to serve expectant on-site customers or load into their own vans for the morning’s distribution to clients in the region, all eager to get going on the annual gamay-guzzling extravaganza.
The volumes of Beaujolais Nouveau shipped peaked in the 1980s. Interest in the idea of “The Beaujolais Nouveau Race” waned in the 1990s. Perhaps this was due to the rapid emergence and growth of New World wines on merchant’s lists and supermarket shelves, arguably a more profitable way for importers to expend time and energy rather than focus on one area of production.
It was, after all, an especially traditionally busy time of year. A wider range and an expanded list to appeal to a broader and ever-more educated customer base were considered a better use of resources. The EU ban on British beef in 1996 over concerns about the presence of BSE in British beef was another significant and unhelpful factor, as simmering trade tensions between Britain and France continued.
With every change to the rules governing the release of each year’s Beaujolais Nouveau since came a further dilution of the idea of “a race” and the appeal of Nouveau itself.
The race, the romance and the frantic rush that accompanied those heady days of the 1980’s are long since past; the current UIVB rules now permit stocks to be held in UK bonds prior to release.
The third Thursday in November, however, is still known as “Beaujolais Nouveau Day”, and the annual release remains a key date in the wine industry’s calendar and worthy of celebration for winemakers and importers around Europe and the UK.
The importance of the role of the specialist freight forwarder, with the relevant knowledge and relationships to work with the ‘trade to deliver was the most logistically challenging of transport operations, was brought firmly into focus. Partnership with an expert drinks logistics service provider could and still cannot, be under-estimated. Some might say that without this knowledge, this partnership, the Beaujolais Nouveau would be likely to be more Arrete than Arrive.
The leading light of Beaujolais Nouveau forwarders were specialist shipping agents Porter & Laker, who, in the 1980s peak, would move up to 78 trailers (in 1983) in one night. Its managing director, Harold Porter, now 91, spoke to our Business Development Manager (and his son!) Chris Porter, about those days, working together around the challenges and successes of numerous Nouveau nights.
Harold, thank you for talking to us at Kukla News.
Q: How did your and Porter & Laker’s involvement come about and who were the principal agents involved, instrumental in the early years of its promotion in the UK?
A: Its birth happened quite slowly and one didn’t notice it when it first happened! I remember drinking Calvet’s Nouveau in France in 1971 but didn’t get involved with it commercially until the early 1980s.
The first people I recall doing it were Joseph Drouhin, who in those days was represented by JB Reynier and Dreyfus Ashby that’s when it started to take off. Joseph Berkman and Georges Duboeuf were, of course, one of the first and largest shippers. It was probably just two or three characters, leading producers, deciding that this might be something that could be used each year as annual interest, promoting their wines around Europe. It took a long time to gel into anything worth doing, years of gentle promotion, then a manic rush. That’s when the need for us as specialist freight forwarders became important, we worked with the trade to join in the idea of the commercial opportunity it offered.
“It was a huge amount of organisation.”
Q: At its commercial height in the mid-late 80s, the importance of “winning the race” each year in time for breakfasts was critical – How did you manage that expectation?
A: It wasn’t until it became commercial viability for the trade that people started realising if they were going to do it, they wanted it done quickly. It gradually developed into the idea of a race, needing to be at the customer’s premises ASAP after midnight on the day of release from the cellars.
To govern this necessity of delivering quickly, French authorities laid down several rules (UIVB). Originally, stocks were allowed to leave cellars 4 days in advance to go to the wholesalers in France, brought to the cellar door by UK suppliers as “ex cellars”, but the stock couldn’t physically move for 4 days (ie the third Thursday in Nov at midnight). It was a huge amount of organisation. Our customers were made aware of the rules each year to manage that expectation.
Q: What were the key planning elements for such a key operation?
A: It was a personal challenge! The Wine & Spirit Association (now the Wine & Spirit Trade Association) originally asked me to get involved on behalf of the Freight Forwarders Group. I met with the French Attache in London to discuss rules and regs for that particular year, I think 1979 or 1980. The system ran for a couple of years for groupage consolidations of customers Nouveau. It was really when larger full trailer volumes became commonplace that it became possible for drivers to leave the cellars at midnight with export documents and drive to Calais to collect clearance documentation there. We had to wait and hope that the drivers would arrive and manage to their tachometers so as not to have to stop and park up en route in France to the port of exit!
“Enormous quantities were shipped, which at its peak saw Porter & Laker chartering two boats to enable us to ship our peak level bookings of the mid-’80s.”
The ferries got very heavily booked up very early. When the release rules changed in the late ’80s, which meant that lorries carrying Nouveau could leave the cellars before midnight but must remain in France until that time, we ensured that we booked the full complement of slots on the first Sealink or Townsend Thoressen vessels leaving Calais after midnight. Occasionally, lorries didn’t arrive in time to catch the early ferry, so we’d make provision on the next ones for any ‘stragglers’ again, managing expectations. Enormous quantities were shipped, which at its peak saw Porter & Laker chartering two boats to enable us to ship our peak level bookings of the mid-80s: 64 loads in 1984, 78 in 1983 and 45 in 1987. It was remarkable.
“We’d improve the communications system year by year. Remember, no mobile phones in those days!”
We had to offer immaculate service, with everyone getting their Nouveau delivery by early or mid-morning all over the country. Yet, we were always thinking about how we might further streamline and improve our service offering. We’d improve the communications system year by year (remember no mobile phones in those days!) and we’d start inviting customers to send one of their staff or directors to meet their lorry for the final’ leg’ of the journey. First, at the dock gates in Calais, then, when the rules changed again, at Dover, but still on the strict understanding that nothing was allowed to move until after midnight. We had made an event for the whole night! Clients would come down to Dover for dinner with us in a local restaurant, then we’d walk to the dock gate where, straight after customs clearance, we’d pair them up with their lorries, climb aboard into the cab and accompany the driver, lorry and precious Nouveau cargo to the final destination.
“The locations of release times changed from midnight at the cellars to midnight at Calais, then Dover, then…”
We managed each year with the knowledge that there was always the possibility of a change in the rules laid down for that year by UIVB. The locations of release times changed from midnight at the cellars to midnight at Calais, then Dover, then, as now, permitted to remain in bonded warehouses across the UK prior to the midnight release on the third Thursday in November.
Q: Was Beaujolais Nouveau the single most important event for the promotion and profile of the wine trade?
A: Well, there are two views here – one is that it certainly introduced a sense of excitement for the British public and encouraged them to enjoy and buy wine before Christmas, much earlier than they were used to before it existed. However, it wasn’t desperately popular with several of the Beaujolais suppliers because, regrettably, in my view, it probably had some effect on the sales of the Cru Beaujolais and Villages Beaujolais. After all, in the public’s mind, Beaujolais Nouveau was ‘the Beaujolais’, so I think there was a degree of ‘education’ that was needed and which, as we know, has developed exponentially ever since.
“Nobody could cope without using a specialist freight forwarder. Brought the role of the forwarder into life.”
Q: Would you agree with the success of any BN campaign without the partnership of Drinks Forwarding Co?
A: Well, obviously! Nobody could cope with this without using a specialist freight forwarder. Brought the role of the forwarder into life. Before being considered by the wine trade as a necessary evil, it became a ‘must-have partner’ with our customers, an integral part of our customers’ business. The magical word is logistics this was the beginning of the realisation of the importance of logistics to wine importers.
Harold, thank you so much for talking to me and Kukla News.
Photos courtesy of Mr Harold Porter and his son, Chris Porter.
