Wine-lovers get taste of 2014 Beaujolais Nouveau at annual uncorking Beaujolais Nouveau hit the world's wine bars on Thursday with makers of the famous fruity tipple adamant the young wine is far more than mere glorified grape juice. Thousands of wine lovers braved the cold in Beaujeu to be among the first to sip this year's vintage in its home town in time-honoured fashion on the third Thursday of November. The annual tradition sees makers of the pink-red wine made from hand-picked Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc rush to market their "primeur" wines made from grapes that ferment for only a handful of weeks. While Beaujolais Nouveau continues to split wine lovers as to whether it has any gastronomic merits, it continuous to enjoy cult status in Japan, which imported 7.9 million bottles last year and celebrated the wine's arrival a full eight hours earlier than France. Stung by criticism that it was producing unpalatable "banana wine," the Beaujolais region has recently focused on raising its brand image and producing more prestigious bottles to keep such as Chiroubles, Morgon or Moulin-à-vent, cutting the vineyards dedicated to Beaujolais Nouveau by a third in the past decade. Despite a general drop in wine consumption in France, the country still manages to drink 17 million bottles of Beaujolais per year.