For both wine connoisseurs and revelers alike, the Thursday before Thanksgiving has taken on a heightened significance in the United States over the past several years: the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau wine from the Burgundy region of France. The very young red wine is made from the gamay grape and aged less than a year before its cork is pulled, which, by law, cannot occur until the third Thursday in November. (Note: Not surprisingly, French people take this very seriously. I have seen a French friend of mine ready to come to blows upon hearing that a restaurant in New York was serving the beaujolais nouveau ahead of time. So watch out!)

The wine is also, as the aforementioned friend told me several years ago, supposed to foreshadow the flavor and quality of that region’s wines for that year once they have aged further, so the Beaujolais Nouveau is considered a sneak peek of what is to come.

The official first tasting of Beaujolais Nouveau has been a much heralded event in France for several decades — more so since the 1970s when winemaker Georges Dubouef had been marketing the wine’s release as a special occasion — and celebrations in the United States, including D.C., have followed suit. Many of the city’s French restaurants and cafés stay open late on the Wednesday before the big day to open the wine at midnight, and in the past, many of them have offered the new wine for free. We’re not sure if it’s the economy, or the desire to tone down the, ahem, revelry that has in the past gone along with the copious drinking of free wine, but far fewer of the parties are offering the Beaujolais Nouveau for free this year. Or if they are, only the first glass is free. Below is a list of some of the possible events you could hit to celebrate the wine later this week.

Image courtesy of Flickr user jetalone.