Japan tepid on pricier Beaujolais Nouveau this year

By Naomi Tajitsu

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - When Masayoshi Sato opened the doors to his wine shop at midnight, only a handful of customers were waiting to be among the first in the world to take home this year's offering of Beaujolais Nouveau.

In a sign that Japan's taste for the seasonal wine may be souring, Sato's shop on the edge of Tokyo's neon-lit Shinjuku district was one of few open in the city at the stroke of the third Thursday of November, when French laws allow for its sale.

"It's not as easy to sell Beaujolais Nouveau as it used to be," said Sato, a manager at Yamaya, a nationwide food and wine shop chain, citing a plateau in popularity and also a strong euro and weak yen as some factors that have made the wine a hard sell.

Only a few years ago Beaujolais Nouveau was considered, along with matsutake mushrooms, chestnuts and abalone, an autumnal gastronomic delight in the country, and Japan is the world's biggest importer of the tart tipple famous for its notoriously short shelf life.

Wine importers and retailers have long linked the Beaujolais Nouveau phenomenon to a presumed appreciation among Japanese for all things fleeting -- many say the wine should be consumed within a month -- roughly the same span as the beloved cherry blossom season in spring.

Some said importers were using the time zone advantage that enables Japan to pop it open before any other country to sell more bottles.

BEAUJOLAIS BUBBLE

Persistent strength in the euro versus the yen has driven up Japanese prices of everything from luxury designer handbags to Brie cheese.

Given the euro's surge to a record high above 169 yen in July, Suntory Ltd, Japan's No. 1 importer of Beaujolais Nouveau, has said it expects catalogue prices for the wine to rise 7 to 8 percent this year.

Yamaya offers around 15 different types of Beaujolais Nouveau, which are priced roughly in the 2,000-3,000 yen ($17.95) range. Sato said that prices on some wines had increased slightly from last year, but added that the overall range was unchanged.

Industry forecasts are for Japan to import around 800,000 cases, around 72,000 hectoliters, of Beaujolais Nouveau this year, down from 86,000 hectoliters in 2006, according to figures from Sopexa, a global marketer of French food and wine.

Sopexa says Beaujolais Nouveau imports peaked at around 94,000 hectoliters in 2004, and have been slipping ever since. Still, this year's estimate remains significantly higher than roughly 65,000 hectoliters in 2003.

"I blinked when I first saw the prices," said Etsuko Naka, a 57-year old nursing care worker stopping by the shop to pick up two bottles shortly after midnight.

She said that she remembered paying less per bottle last year, but added that a slight price hike was hardly a reason to stop indulging in the wine.

"It's more expensive this year, but it's nice to have something that only comes around once a year, to share with friends," she said.