Page Details

• TitleThe Beaujolais Run
• DescriptionIn 1970 at the Hotel Maritonnes Joseph Berkmann and Clement Freud were sharing a dinner of Coq au Vin. Owner of eight London restaurants, Berkmann also ran his own wine distribution company and wrote a weekly column for The Sunday Times. Clement Freud was Director of the London Playboy Club, a respectable member of Parliament and wine correspondent for The Sun. As bottle succeeded bottle that night, the germ of an idea took shape. Sometime after midnight, they roared away from Romanèche with several cases of 1970 Beaujolais in the back of each car having challenged each other to be the first to get their cases to London. That year and the next, the race was a purely private affair between Berkmann and Freud. Berkmann won both times. Having taken potshots at each other through their respective wine columns, word got around that something interesting was going on, and others rushed to join in; The Beaujolais Run was born. In 1973, Alan Hall columnist for The Sunday Times, published an article about threw down the gauntlet to Fleet Street to 'Bring Back the Beaujolais' offering a bottle of Champagne for the first to deliver a bottle of the new vintage to his desk. At that time the object of the exercise was speed and this was brought to an end by the RAF, who later took up the challenge in a Harrier and broke all records! The Beaujolais Run ® has evolved to become a navigational shootout through a cryptic checkpoint course, which begins at a location in the UK and ends in deepest Burgundy. This format ensures Austin and Aston, Jaguar and Jalpa and Porsche and Prius can compete on a level playing field. Maps, Sat Nav and laptops are all acceptable modes of navigation on the event. The ‘Run attracts an impressive array of teams each year piloting vehicles from everyday road cars to classic cars, supercars and touring motorbikes. Although we choose a celebrated marque each year, you do not have to drive that marque to enter.
• Websitewww.beaujolaisrun.com