"You may ask what there is to celebrate," said Hans Van Beeck to a decent-sized crowd of clients at Société Générale’s Beaujolais Nouveau party in Tokyo on October 20. Referring to the markets’ gloomy mood, Van Beeck, chief country officer for the French bank’s securities operation in Japan, suggested that the young wine might stand as "a symbol of nature’s ability to rejuvenate itself" and thus lift his guests’ spirits, if only temporarily.
The wine, famed for the speed with which it is fermented and then rushed to market on the third Thursday each November, is apparently scorned by some critics for being immature, lacking in depth, or just plain vulgar.
Euromoney can confirm from a sample consumed purely for research purposes that SG’s batch was indeed refreshing and morale-raising. But we hope that none of SG’s clients experienced any adverse affects from the overconsumption of a new product that was gestated quickly before being sold in large volumes, and which seemed to go down well at the time, but later demonstrated toxic effects.