and southeast asia every weekday live from bangkok only on nhk world "newsline." >>> wine lovers have started popping the corks on this year's beaujolais. sales of the 2012 vintage begin on thursday. thanks to geography, people in japan are the first to sample the french wine each year. wine experts say this year's grape harvest suffered from poor weather. producers in france's beaujolais region wonder tuesday they wld be able to meet demand. vineyards faced heavy rain, cool temperatures, and summertime hailstorms. the harvest of grapes used in buy voe beaujolais was one of the worst on record. producers wanted to make sure they could quench japanese consumers' thirst. they shipped 8 million bottles to japan, the same number as last year. to do this, they reduced the amount available for sale in france. >> translator: it's difficult to