Beaujolais Nouveau wine hit by supply chain problems
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On November 17th, 2016, bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau 2016 wine were displayed in Tokyo at a countdown.
Yoshikazu Tsuno | Gamma-Rapho | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Every year on the third Thursday of November, at exactly 12:01 a.m., the French release their celebrated first wine of the harvest — the crisp and fruity Beaujolais Nouveau.
American oenophiles saw a Beaujolais Nouveau marketplace hampered this year by supply chain problems. This has been a problem that is all too familiar in the current economy.
All of this leads to cost increases for both suppliers and customers.
The supply chain is definitely in trouble. “There’s always an issue with containers, and there’s always space problems on ships. But it’s been really hard this year,” Dennis Kreps said, who is co-founder at Quintessential Wines in California’s Napa Valley.
Climate problems had already put the market in a difficult position. Spring frost, hail and drought caused Beaujolais Nouveau to drop nearly 50%.
Kreps stated, “It’s sort of a phenomenon happening worldwide right now.” “I have seen some dramatic drops in France’s numbers across all countries. Beaujolais is one of those hardest-hit regions.
Tough problems, delicate grapes
Kreps, the U.S.’s exclusive importer of Georges Duboeuf wine merchant, works with a small group to coordinate the complex logistics of shipping the wine to American retail outlets on the French schedule.
Beaujolais in Eastern France is considered a Subregion of Burgundy. There are approximately 42,000 acres covered by vineyards on low granite hills north and east of Lyon.
Here, thin-skinned magenta gamay grapes and Georges Duboeuf are king.
Duboeuf, also known affectionately as “Papa Beaujolais”, has his gamay grapes harvested by hand in September. Next comes a rapid fermentation, followed by bottling in Oct.
At the beginning of September 2018, a picker cut grapes in a Beaujolais vineyard, east France. This was during this year’s first Beaujolais harvest.
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The Beaujolais Nouveau wine – typically light in body with a juicy fruit-forward palate – is then shipped around the world and staged for its November debut.
Beaujolais suppliers first needed containers secured in order to start shipping. They were also concerned about possible delays at ports.
Kreps stated, “You cannot control the backlog in the ports.”
He said that one ship had to be rerouted to Norfolk from New York because of a significant backup. Kreps said that the ship bound for New York usually carries most of the wine intended to be distributed throughout the country.
Kreps explained that “we then had to reroute every driver and truck from New York down towards Norfolk and then get containers off the ship so they could get to the West Coast right away.”
Due to the labor shortage, they had difficulty hiring drivers qualified for their job.
He said that although we’ve never experienced an issue, one truck’s flip caused everything to be lost. So, regrettably, Arkansas lost all its wine, Memphis lost most of their wine, and West Virginia lost a lot of wine.
Beaujolais grapes were found in a basket at the “Moulin a Vent”, vineyard near Chenas in Beaujolais on August 26, 2015. This was after the first Beaujolais harvest.
AFP | AFP | Getty Images
Yet even with all the supply and production problems – freight costs have tripled and the cost of the fruit itself was significantly higher, as well – a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau will sell this year for only a slightly higher retail price than usual, Kreps said.
“We had already agreed to pricing for all our wholesalers. The wholesalers called the retailers. They had also committed quantities.” he stated. He said, “Now is not the right time to return to them with an increase in cost.” The winery was contacted and we ate their cost.
Kreps offered a hopeful message to those who were able get their hands onto Beaujolais Nouveau.
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