The passing of legendary negoçiant Georges Duboeuf (1933-2020), who died on January 4th, leaves a large hole in the world wine community. There’s no doubt in my mind that Mr. Duboeuf single handedly changed the way in which we think about wine today. Those of a certain age ;-) will recall the days (years before the ascent of the BC industry) when wine was very much the domain of elitists. Domineering (always male) sommeliers (wine-splainers?) were the rule rather than the exception. And France’s share of the BC market hovered at around a robust 50 percent.
No matter what else he accomplished for Beaujolais (and plenty he did achieve) George Duboeuf will go down in history as the man who, for better or worse, created the Beaujolais Nouveau craze. Even though he himself actually didn’t—and never claimed credit for it.
The idea was conceived back in the 1950s. The Union Interprofessionnelle des Vins du Beaujolais (UIVB) established November 15th as the release date for the new vintage. Later that changed to the third Thursday. And the party was on—at one minute after midnight to be precise—as bottles were rushed to Paris.
Duboeuf took the idea and ran with it. His vision arguably became the most successful wine marketing campaign ever created. Truly it was a stroke of genius. Beaujolais Nouveau wasn’t popular with everyone, least of all with ‘serious’ wine drinkers. But George Duboeuf’s approach to hold a big party for the release—one that eventually spread worldwide—effectively democratized a very elitist realm.
Beaujolais Nouveau: wine event of the year
If you were in Vancouver in 1980s you’ll recall that Beaujolais Nouveau was the biggest wine event of the year. Back in the day when regional cuisine consisted mainly of planked salmon and Nanaimo bars, there were two main dining choices: French and Italian. And there was no shortage of French restaurants at which to celebrate ‘Le Nouveau.’ I recall at least one fun lunch at Café de Paris, and another at Le Gavroche. The Nouveau idea has been emulated here in BC by wineries such as Quails Gate, whose ‘Cailleteau’ Gamay Nouveau offers a worthy nod to the tradition.
Richard Carras remembers
Richard Carras (who with Daryl Weinbren owned Vintage Consultants) represented Duboeuf wines in Western Canada from the mid 80s to early 2000’s.
I asked Richard for some memories of Georges Duboeuf and Beaujolais Nouveau. He was happy to oblige:
“I believe Mommesin was the first to introduce Beaujolais Nouveau here, in about 1984. That’s when we did some research and found that a relatively new (20 years in business at that time) Beaujolais negoçiant, Les Vins Georges Duboeuf was really ramping up and was doing a fantastic job with Nouveau. We contacted him and were able to take on the agency.”
Richard agrees that “for many years, Beaujolais Nouveau was the highlight of the year in our activity calendar. We spent months taking pre-orders, and coordinating a promotion and distribution plan. As you know, the wine was shipped in by air freight, not able to leave the French airports until midnight Paris time, of the 3rd Thursday of November.”
On the ground…
“The BCLDB worked very closely with us and arranged to have the product ready to go at their warehouse doors at 9:00am Vancouver time. Agents who were involved were allowed to have our vehicles ready, load them quickly, and head off to do direct deliveries, with the goal to have them on restaurant tables by noon that day. We had already delivered promotional signage and display material in advance, so customers were all ready and waiting for us when we arrived.”
Richard perfectly captures the party atmosphere—as well as the keen competition between agents…
“What a wonderfully chaotic time. We did have a few incidents over the years. One agent opened his car door just as our truck was pulling out…we call him Don Doorless to this day!! I also remember swamping on a large truck that we rented one year, and while I was in talking to the restaurateur on Granville Island, the driver backed the truck up to the loading bay and scraped across the top of the Chef’s brand new sports car! I also remember one year hiring a flatbed truck and taking a small French band and a troupe of Can-Can dancers around to some of our key accounts over the lunch hour.”
However, here’s Richard’s favourite Duboeuf Nouveau story…
Nouveau ‘goes to the dogs!’
“One year, the Yukon Liquor Corporation asked us if we would help them organize a special delivery of Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau by dogsled. Terry Sewell and I volunteered.
“They took us some miles out of Whitehorse, where it was about 30 below and they set us up on two dogsleds, one with a professional driver and Terry sitting on the sled wrapped up in furs and carrying a case of wine. The other one was smaller with a few cases of wine tied on, and they asked me to stand on the sled pretending to be the driver. Then they took a series of pictures of us as if we had just arrived.
“Once the photoshoot was over, they offered to take us on a short ride. They left me on my own on the small sled (only 5 dogs) and gave me basic instructions…’mush’ to go forward, ‘ha’ to go right, ‘gee’ to go left. They explained that they were going to follow a short forest trail that would bring us back to the main lodge, and off they went.
Anchors aweigh
“I yelled ‘mush’ but nothing happened. Soon the other sled was out of site around a bend in the trail, and I realized that I was totally on my own, out in the middle of nowhere, and I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually I figured out that there was a rope attached to the sled, and it went back about 6 feet to a sort of anchor that served as an emergency brake. They had forgotten to tell me about this! So I stepped off the sled to go release the anchor.
“As soon as I released it out of the snow, the dogs took off…very quickly! I had no chance to get back on the sled, and next thing I knew, I was on my belly, sliding along the snow and holding on to the anchor like it was a water-skiing rope, I couldn’t let it go for fear of being stranded out there. It was easy enough while we were going straight, but at the first turn, centrifugal force spun me out to the side, and I started bouncing off the trees like a pin-ball game. Finally, I realized I had to put on the brake again, and I jammed the anchor back into the snow, and we came to a screeching stop.
“A few bumps and bruises, and a torn sled suit, but otherwise basically ok. I carefully got back on the sled, and gently removed the anchor and we were soon back to the lodge and sipping a hot chocolate and sharing war stories!”
Poster from Beaujolais Nouveau 1994. It was banned by BC Liquor Control as being too risqué
Beyond Nouveau
Even if Nouveau’s star may have waned, Beaujolais the region is very much on the rise, as more people discover the delights of Gamay. Carras says Duboeuf, along with his son Franck, partook in “a lot of great tastings showing all the different levels and villages of Beaujolais. Duboeuf seemed to be on every restaurant, and they were amazing to work with.”
“…We had regular meetings and dinners with them during VinExpo in Bordeaux every two years. Georges used to always organize dinners a great restaurants with different importers and invited some of his special customers from France. One year I got seated at a table with Paul Bocuse and the Troisgros brothers…the conversation was totally in French all night long, so I basically kept my mouth shut and listened as best I could with Franck providing occasional translation.”
“Only wonderful memories…he really was the ‘King of Beaujolais’,” says Richard.
“He will be greatly missed.”
Thanks for the great memories, Richard.
RIP M.Georges Duboeuf.
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