Nouveau or bust: Taking part in The Beaujolais Run
In November last year, Sophie McLean secured a place as a navigator in The Beaujolais Run. She gives an insight into what it was like.
While I was revising for my final WSET diploma exams, the only way I could commit to memory the 10 crus of Beaujolais was to come up with a mnemonic to prompt each one.
In my case I turned this mnemonic into a princely romance, and to this day it still helps me identify the individual sites when needing to recall them.
From north to south, the tale of love (St. Amour) involved a young chap called Julien (Juliénas) who along with his dog (Chénas – sounds like ‘chien’ – French for dog), met and wooed his beloved under a windmill (Moulin-à-Vent).
He bought her flowers (Fleurie), to show his chivalrous side (Chiroubles) and eventually convinced Morgan (Morgon) to be his Queen (Régnié) by offering her not just his brolly (Brouilly), but his coat and brolly (Côte de Brouilly) as spring rain clouds formed above.
Sadly, I’ve never been wooed by a handsome prince of Beaujolais but the wines and the region have had my heart for a long time.
So much so that I applied to take part in the annual ‘Beaujolais Run’ and, last October, found out I had been accepted.
The race’s origins
It’s now 52 years since the original run took place, and is currently in its 20th year under a revised guise.
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Rather than a flat-out race, this now-trademarked version of the event sees a select group of motoring enthusiasts participate in ‘a series of navigational challenges’.
The modern format takes inspiration from the first run championed by the wine merchant Joseph Berkmann, and fellow wine enthusiast (the posthumously disgraced) Clement Freud.
Over dinner at the Hotel Maritonnes in Romanèche-Thorins on the 18 November 1970, the duo challenged each other to be the first to get their Beaujolais Nouveau back to London. Berkmann won the first two races but then others cottoned on to this bit of fun.
The race exploded in popularity in 1974 when Alan Hall, wine columnist at The Sunday Times issued a challenge to readers to present a case at the paper’s offices.
At one point, thousands of cars used to participate but accidents and speeding cases caused the French authorities to clamp down on the event in the late 1980s.
Besides, no one had ever been able to beat the RAF’s run record of 32 minutes – using a Harrier jet.
Today the official competition still nods to the RAF, with all elected participants raising a minimum stipulated amount for the RAF Benevolent Fund.
This year their efforts were unveiled to team Beaujolais Run over a practice demonstration from the Red Arrows at their Lincolnshire home of RAF Waddington.
Avengers assemble
Restaurateurs, entrepreneurs and engineers joined from as far away as Cornwall, Bristol and Yorkshire.
It is only the night before the ‘run’ begins that route plans are announced (no two years being the same) with daily tasks to meet throughout the week.
The overall goal is getting from A to B over the shortest possible distance. Participants navigate via checkpoints along the way that are only revealed through solving daily cryptic clues.
They must all be visited in the correct order, and evidenced photographically.
Run cars to date have included classic and modern Jaguars, Austin Healeys, Aston Martins and Renault Alpines, through to Smart cars and everyday runarounds.
A beautiful bright orange Corvette CR8 was the star of 2024’s show, alongside special guest Martin Donnelly, ex-Lotus Formula One Driver, driving a Porsche 911 Carerra.
Donnelly had just finished advising Brad Pitt on the new Formula One film that will come out later this year.
Some of the group have been running together for over 10 years, some, like myself, were first timers.
I held the task of navigator and co-pilot to driver Jaan Larner – a corporate lawyer by day – in an Audi A6 Allroad (he sadly left the Aston Martin at home for want of larger wine-shaped boot space).
Our (permitted) sat-nav assisted gameplan involved routes using abandoned vineyard and farm tracks, nodding to amused locals along the way.
It’s a sure fire way to figure out if you can get on with someone you’ve never met before (except over Zoom!). Teamwork makes the dreamwork, after all.
And our team was ‘The Avengers’.
The route
This year’s first rendezvous point was Gusbourne Estate, a stone’s throw from train tracks to France and an enviable counterpart to the following evening’s hosts, Champagne Taittinger in Reims.
Boarding Le Shuttle in affiliated livery the next morning, the teams got on their way to deciphering cryptic clues before arriving in Champagne that evening.
Over the following days we wended our way from Champagne, to Chablis and the Côte d’Or with plenty of winery visits to ‘friends of the run’.
We stopped off at Champagne Duval Leroy (Côte des Blancs), Phillipe Le Hardi (Santenay) and finally Yannick De Vermont in Vaux-En-Beaujolais, from whom we collected our coveted case of ‘Nouveau’.
Touring the textbooks where vinous topography leaps into life and autumnal colours of the appellations paint the roads is both a magical and inspiring experience.
Festive fun
Another stipulation of the run is a fancy dress costume. Our theme was ‘Paris Olympics’.
‘The Avengers’ took Paris 1924 as its cue, while others arrived as breakdancers, Lady Liberty, and one team went equestrian with one dressed as a horse and another as a rider – though no sign of the Blue Bacchus from the opening ceremony (thankfully).
This at least meant we were suitably attired to take part in the festivities that take place in Beaujeu that mark the official release of the year’s Beaujolais Nouveau.
As guests of the mayor, The Beaujolais Run team hit the town alongside other international representatives for a special evening of dinner and entertainment, hosted by Les Sarmentelles de Beaujeu under a huge canvas tent.
A true ‘spectacle’, the ensuing event saw a distinctly French take on creativity, culture and art as well as fine ‘Beaujeu’ cuisine, wrapped up in musical talent from the likes of Quebecois ‘Nayah’ – France’s Eurovision candidate in 1999 who now performs as Celine Dion’s double.
A torch-lit procession of flames then makes its way through the town where, at midnight, the Beaujolais Nouveau is released, fireworks are lit and the town comes alive to the tune of the 10 cru’s names in lights, proudly displayed on the side of the main square’s buildings.
Like kids in a sweet shop the crowd watches on and applauds with glee.
Prize performance
On the final night, back in Champagne, a black-tie Awards Ceremony is held at Taittinger’s Château de la Marquetterie, raising more RAF benevolent funds through an auction.
After 1,400 miles later, it was a great surprise to learn that ‘The Avengers’ – Larner and I – took first prize for achieving the shortest distance covered!
Nick McCaffrey was awarded the L’esprit du Cours award for his hardy driving and navigating the whole way on a BMW GS1250 motorbike, through rain, wind and a full day of freezing wet snow.
Meanwhile, one duo got the wooden spoon for failing to turn up one morning.
As a great source of pride, I was also awarded ‘P1’ trophy for best overall fundraiser. A double team win!
If nothing else, the key takeaway from such an experience is the sentiment of charitable fun. A chance to remember and celebrate how wine brings people together, crossing cultures, landscapes and traditions.
Still no princes, still madly in love with Beaujolais.
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Sophie McLean is a freelance wine expert and travel writer since getting the bug for all things associated while studying Spanish and Italian at Bristol University. Nearly twenty years later and she has worked with some of the wine world’s most interesting and respected brands, meeting some of the foremost wine lovers and makers through each vinous adventure, while always aiming to foster connection through a mutual love of what she will always dub ‘geography, bottled’.