The annual Beaujolais run is well under way in France with Worldwide Flight Services’ (WFS) team of cargo handling specialists helping airline customers ensure the timely delivery of over 3,000 tonnes of this year’s new young wine to customers in Asia.
WFS has played a key role in meeting international demand for Beaujolais Nouveau for more than 20 years. The WFS team spend several weeks each year working closely with customers to carefully coordinate exports onboard freighter flights from Paris as well as deliveries from France to other major airports in Europe to connect with more long-haul services.
Every year, the transportation of the new Beaujolais Nouveau represents a race against time for airlines and their freight forwarding partners to ensure the wine reaches its destination in time for the official Beaujolais Nouveau Day, traditionally the third Thursday in November. On this day, the high level of demand to taste the new wine ensures it achieves a premium price. The Beaujolais region of France produces some 28 million bottles of the young wine each year, with over seven million bottles shipped to Japan alone.
WFS began handling 2017 Beaujolais in the fourth week of October, filling freighter flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport as well as more than 80 trucks bound for flights departing from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid and Milan. Special measures are also taken to ensure the security and quality of the wine during the transportation period, which usually lasts over two weeks.
Hugo Rodrigues, Managing Director of WFS/SFS at Paris CDG, said: “After more than 20 years of enabling our airline customers meet the Beaujolais Nouveau Day deadline, we have a finely-tuned operation in place that ensures wine lovers are able to enjoy the new wine on Beaujolais Day and in the peak demand weeks that follow. This is managed by a dedicated WFS team in a warehouse facility in Paris that coordinates every single shipment. We take a great sense of pride is supporting our customers as they prepare for this special day for the wine industry and consumers in France as well customers across the globe, and we look forward to even higher demand in 2018.”
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