Beaujolais – the New Generation

Maybe all of us have a view about Beaujolais wine. Some will associate it, for good or ill, with Beaujolais Nouveau which was wildly popular in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s. Today Beaujolais Nouveau is mostly drunk in France and, for some reason, Japan! Burgundy aficionados may consider Beaujolais too light while for others that’s the point – it offers fruity, approachable wines which can also be chilled for summer drinking.

The reality is more complex, as illustrated by a recent tasting I attended, promoted by Beaujolais Nouvelle Génération. I was privileged to taste a fascinating selection of wines made by newer producers who have made less than 8 vintages. There were fruity, delicate, floral wines from Fleurie and Regnie to more “natural” styles and deep, structured wines from Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent. All-in-all here is a region determined to continue to increase the diversity and quality of its wines. This will involve the creation of more premier crus and lieux dits (literally “named places”) and applications are already in progress from Fleurie, with Moulin-a-Vent, Juliénas and Brouilly pending.  The initiative goes under the name of the “premier cru” plan.

Before the wines, a bit of background. The Beaujolais wine growing area consists of 12 appellations in a region some 55 kilometres long stretching from Mâcon in the north and close to Lyon in the south. In the south is the large Beaujolais DOC area which provides the least expensive wines, to the north lies the smaller Beaujolais Villages DOC area which produces fruity wines but with a little more structure. Then come the 10 specifically named appellations from Brouilly in the south to Saint-Amour closest to Mâcon. Gamay is the supreme grape variety and red wines made from it account for some 95% of production. The rest is white wine made from Chardonnay and some rose, again made from Gamay.

Historically the dukes of Burgundy always liked to have a go at Beaujolais and, in the C14, Phillip the Bold warned that one could get ill from drinking it and eventually banned the wine in his dominions. This was probably because it provided competition with his own winemaking businesses! After another edict by another Phillip – the Good – in 1455, the growers moved south to the Beaujolais region as we know it today. This suited the Gamay grape which needs heat to give its best.  Eventually in 1936 the first crus were permitted in Beaujolais but it was only only in 2011 that an appellation, Bourgogne Gamay, was created, for Gamay wines produced in Burgundy.

Beaujolais was very popular in the bistros of Lyon and, with the advent of the railways in the C19, the wine began to be drunk in Paris and indeed in England. The marketing talents of Georges Duboeuf gave rise to the Beaujolais Nouveau wine craze in the 1980s but unfortunately this led to vast production of sub-standard wine and eventually to a massive surplus. A French wine critic described Beaujolais at this time as “vin de merde” which led to litigation as well as over 1m cases of wine being sold for distilling. Since then a number of Burgundy producers, including Jadot and Louis Latour, have moved into the area and younger regional growers and winemakers have made big strides forward in the quality of the wine, exploiting the various terroirs and refining their wine-making techniques.

Like in many wine areas the Beaujolais producers are very keen to highlight the huge diversity of soils in the area, said to be over 300. As part of the UNESCO Geopark initiative, a large soil study was carried out between 2009 and 2018 which helped underpin the creation of lieux dits as mentioned above. Broadly though, the southern Beaujolais region has clayey, limestone marl which gives way to granitic sand and schist in the north. Gamay seems to love granite and hence the best wines are made in the 10 cru areas. But viticulture is not easy there given the steepness of the hills which often requires hand picking.  Overall, the region is dominated by relatively small estates – some 2000 of them with 9 co-ops. Production is about 70m bottles a year (compared with 185m in Burgundy) and some 35% is exported, most notably to the US, UK and Japan.

Since the aim of most growers is to produce red-fruited, light and appealing wines, most use whole bunches and carbonic or semi-carbonic maceration. These techniques bring out fruit flavours and soften tannins.  With this aim in mind, punching down and other extraction techniques are kept to a minimum. The result tends to be delicate, sometimes floral wines with ripe, soft tannins but also, in the best examples, something of a “crunchy” red berry element.  Most producers age their wines in concrete tanks – typically for a few months – which they say retains freshness.

From the tasting I’ve picked out three wines which I believe best exemplify different styles from the crus. The Guerin is the fullest wine, partially-aged in barriques, the Hoppenot is a herbal, delicate style and the Collette retains the fresh, ripe red berry character I look for in Beaujolais but with some deeper black fruit notes. All are excellent in their different ways.

Domaine de Collette Régnié 2022 – my overall favourite. This is from 70-year-old vines grown on granite from an organically-farmed property and made by a young winemaker, Pierre-Alexandre Gauthier, who spent time in New Zealand before returning to the family business. The grapes are cold-pressed for 7-15 days in whole bunches, carbonically macerated and aged 8 months in concrete. The result is a bright ruby red wine with definite spicy notes and both red and black fruit flavours of red berries and cherries. Available in the UK from the Fine Wine Company in Edinburgh.

Domaine Grégoire Hoppenot Fleurie, Origines 2021. The winemaker started in 2018 and in 2021 was awarded Best Newcomer. The wine comes from a combination of younger and 40-year-old vines grown as gobelet on granite. It’s carbonically-macerated using whole bunches and then spends 7 months in concrete tanks before bottling. To me it started with a slightly farmyard aroma, typical of “natural wine” with ripe, concentrated red berry fruit and spicy and herbal notes. It’s a delicate and light  wine, in short an excellent example of Fleurie. Available in the UK from the Wine Society.

Domaine Elisa Guérin, Moulin-à-Vent, Les Thorins 2021. The Domaine was established in 2019 and this wine is from 60-year-old vines, grown as gobelet bushes. Whole bunches are used and the wine is semi-carbonically macerated and made with very low levels of SO_2. It is then aged 80% in concrete tanks and 20% in old French oak barrels??? The wine is medium-ruby with ripe, red berry and cherry fruit, a degree of spice and drying tannins on the palate. A rich, deep wine with ageing potential. Sadly, I was unable to find this cuvée on Winesearcher but Elisa Guérin’s La Vigne de Mon Pere is available in the UK through Wayward Wines of Yorkshire.

I learnt a lot about Beaujolais from the tasting and was very pleasantly surprised by the diversity of styles available. And all at pretty affordable prices. I’m told it’s an exceptionally beautiful area to visit  and the producers are very welcoming. A cycling tour sounds appealing but I, for one, having looked at the terrain, will be going for the electric bike option!