Beaujolais is perhaps one of the most misunderstood or misconstrued wines among American wine consumers. Typically, it is associated with Nouveau Beaujolais, that frilly, fruity, fizzy libation whose release each November is cause for silly celebrations touting its effervescent and ephemeral attributes. There are, however, much more serious renditions of Beaujolais for the wine connoisseur that are too often overlooked Stateside. In my latest wine tasting classes, we sampled the delights of "real" Beaujolais and learned about its different classifications, including several "Crus", the pièce de résistance of this region.
Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées "L'Ancien" Vieilles Vignes Beaujolais 2016
Appellation: Appellation Beaujolais Contrôlée
Varietal: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: 80+ year old vines; clay and limestone soil; grapes destemmed, fermented and then aged in concrete vats; grapes grown in tighter bunches with fewer and smaller, thicker-skinned berries, yielding more concentrated flavor; rich red-fruit aromas and flavors with soft tannins.
Food Pairing: Roast turkey with cranberry sauce; grilled salmon fillet with roasted fennel; Moroccan lamb tagine with apricot
Alcohol: 12%
Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages 2016
Appellation: Appellation Beaujolais-Villages Contrôlée
Varietal: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: Plump wine with notes of strawberry, black cherry and spice
Food pairing: hors d'oeuvres, mild cheeses, poultry dishes
Alcohol: 12.5%
Clos de la Roilette Fleurie 2017
Appellation: Appellation Fleurie Contrôlée
Varietals: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: Soil: manganese, granite, clay; semi-carbonic maceration with submerged hat, temperature control and native yeasts, then aged in large oak foudres; deep blackcurrant color with a hint of purple, a restrained nose of crème de cassis, a rich, full mouth with aromas of cassis, black cherries, and a nutty character, and finishes with zesty acidity.
Alcohol: 13%
Laurent Perrachon et Fils Juliénas "Roche Bleue" 2015
Appellation: Appellation Juliénas Contrôlée
Varietal: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: 40+ year old vines; soil type: schist, granite, clay; hand harvested; 9 months aging in concrete tanks and foudres; intense ruby hue; bouquet dominated by fruit aromas peach, red fruit and flowers; serve at 13°C; aging 4-5 years;
Food Pairings : coq au vin, game birds or poultry en sauce.
Alcohol: 13%
Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte de Py 2016
Appellation : Appellation Morgon Contrôlée
Varietal: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: rich, structured and dense; tannins make wine built to last; intense with ripe black fruits; 94 Points Wine Enthusiast
Alcohol: 13%
Jean-Paul Brun Terre Dorées Côte de Brouilly 2015
Appellation: Appellation Côte de Brouilly Contrôlée
Varietals: 100% Gamay
Production/Tasting Notes: Granite soil; grapes destemmed, fermented and aged in concrete vats; vibrant aromas of ripe blackberries and boysenberries, sweet raspberries, some strawberry jam and slightly earthy tones; medium-bodied, very youthful and quite dense on the palate with dry, concentrated and even somewhat robust flavors of tart cranberries, sour cherry bitterness, a little bit of peppery spice, a hint of earthiness and a touch of fresh red plums; sinewy, muscular the ripeness and sweetness in the nose are conspicuously absent from the taste; seriously structured for a Beaujolais with its high acidity and moderately grippy tannins.
Alcohol: 12%
What is Beaujolais?
There are essentially 4 classifications of (red) Beaujolais:
1) Standard Beaujolais (including Beaujolais Supérieur which are standard Beaujolais wines vinified to a higher level of quality, and made from grapes which have reached optimal ripeness.)
2) Beaujolais-Villages: the appellation for red, white and rosé wines from an area made up of 38 villages in the north of the Beaujolais region. The hilly, granitic terroir here is considered superior to that of the flatter lands in the south of Beaujolais and, as a result, Beaujolais-Villages wines are considered to be of a higher quality than those of the straight Beaujolais appellation. These light, juicy wines, based overwhelmingly on the Gamay grape variety, display varietal characters of red fruit and spice.
3) Beaujolais Nouveau: wines which are released almost immediately after harvest. Arguably the most famous (but least serious!) expression of the Gamay grape variety, these light, fruity reds are usually the first of the year's harvest in France, and are released annually to huge international fanfare.
4) Cru Beaujolais: any of the ten districts long recognized as the finest in the Beaujolais region. Each of these (Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour) has its own appellation.
What is Carbonic Maceration?
A winemaking technique most commonly associated with the Beaujolais region of France. Grapes are whole-bunch fermented in a sealed container which has been flushed with carbon dioxide, creating an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment. Fermentation begins inside the still-whole berries, creating aromatic flavor compounds (phenols) not found in conventional fermentations. These compounds are responsible for the 'banana' and 'bubblegum' aromas associated with carbonically macerated wines. The technique produces wines which are fruitier and less tannic than those made from crushed grapes. Genuine, pure carbonic maceration is very hard to achieve, because the grapes at the bottom of the container typically split under the weight of the fruit above.
Notes on Winemakers
Jean Paul Brun is located in Charnay, a village in the Southern Beaujolais just north of Lyons, in a beautiful area known as the "Region of Golden Stones". Brun is the owner and winemaker at this 40-acre family estate and has attracted the attention of the French and American press for the wonderfully fruity and delicate wines he produces.
Brun wants to make "old-style" Beaujolais and his vinification differs from the prevailing practices in the region. He believes that the charm of Gamay's fruit is best expressed by the grapes' indigenous yeasts, rather than by adding industrial yeast. Virtually all Beaujolais is now made by adding a particular yeast during fermentation.
Known as 71B, this yeast is a laboratory product made in Holland from a tomato base, which imparts wines with banana and candy aromas. It produces a beverage, but with no authenticity and little charm. Brun, on the other hand, wants to make a pure Gamay wine.
Brun's view is that Beaujolais drinks best at a lower degree of alcohol and that there is no need to systematically add sugar to the must (chaptalize) to reach alcohol levels of 12 to 13 degrees. His Beaujolais is made to be pleasurable - light, fruity and delicious - not an artificially inflated wine that shines at tasting competitions.
Only a minimal amount of S02 is used at bottling to keep the wine fresh and "headache-free". Fermentation naturally produces a lot of CO2, which acts as protection against oxidation during aging; leaving some in the wine at bottling time also helps to keep it fresh. Filtration is also minimal so that the wine keeps its original fruit and aromas. Brun’s wines are not ‘blockbusters’ in the sense of ‘big.’ The emphasis is not on weight, but on fruit: Beaujolais as it once was and as it should be.
Brun’s Nouveaus were rated as the top Nouveau of the vintage by France’s Gault Millaumagazine several years in a row. Robert Parker has rated Brun as a four-star producer (the only other Beaujolais producers with four stars are in the Crus) and has written about his wines:
“Proprietor Brun is a believer in using only the vineyard’s wild yeast, rather than the synthetic yeasts used by most other producers. His beautiful wines are favorites among purists.”
The Perrachon family settled in Juliénas in 1601 and established the estate of Laurent Perrachon & Fils in 1877. Today, the 7th generation of winemakers carries on its ancestor’s tradition with the same aim: to express the essence of the terroir. The vineyard is managed with a sustainable farming philosophy. By keeping grass between the vines and using mechanical rather than chemical methods to care for the soil, Perrachon makes good use of vines that are an average of 45 to 60 years old. Yields are kept low at an average of 45hl/ha for the standard Crus and much lower for the wines produced on delimited Climats. The winemaking process is similar to a classic Burgundian style, with a large portion being destemmed (the exception being the Beaujolais). Perrachon uses indigenous yeasts and a long maceration time to extract the broadest palette of flavors, complexity and structure. The wines are aged in the Estate's vaulted cellars that were built in 1701.
Jean-Marc Burgaud, a budding young star located in the village of Morgon, he is hard working and meticulous and has great ambitions for his wines that his vineyards easily justify. His 19 hectares (Beaujolais villages 5 hectares; Régnié 1 hectare; Morgon 13 hectares) are planted with Gamay noir on granitic/schistose hillsides. The Beaujolais-Village comes from Chateau du Thulon in the village of Lantignie. The village is renowned for its hillsides and its granite soil. The 12th century chateau belonged to Jean-Marc Burgaud’s aunt, Mme Jambon. The vinification, elevage and bottling all take place in the chateau cellars. The vines are, on average, 40 years old. Typical Beaujolais vinification, with carbonic maceration of the whole berries for 5 to 6 days. Raised in tank for 4 to 5 months. Within Mogon there are several lieu dits and the Cote du Py is considered as the best vineyard in the appellation. This large sloping hillside, where the vines are in excess of 50 years old, has soil of schists, degraded rock, iron oxide and manganese which impart a distinct minerality to the wine. This is a well-structured wine, redolent of black fruits (mulberries and cherries). Carbonic maceration of the whole berries lasts 12 to 15 days, aand the wine is raised in barrel as well as tank.
The Clos de la Roilette, in the village of Fleurie, covers nine hectares of one of the best slopes in the Beaujolais Crus. The clos has an eastern exposure, borders the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, and produces wines that are beautiful when young and have the capacity to age 5-10 years, depending on the vintage. In the 20's, when the Fleurie appellation was first created, the former landowner was infuriated with losing the Moulin-à-Vent appellation under which the clos had previously been classified. He created a label, using a photograph of his racehorse Roilette, and used the name Clos de la Roilette, without mentioning Fleurie. The owner vowed not to sell a drop of his wine on the French market and the production went to Switzerland, Germany and England. By the mid-1960s, the owner's heirs had lost interest in the clos and a large portion of the land had gone wild and untended. In 1967, Fernand Coudert bought this poorly maintained estate, and replanted the vineyards. His son Alain joined him in 1984, and has been the winemaker since. The Couderts say their particular terroir (mainly clay and manganese), and the age of their vines (25 to 33 years-old) account for the richness of their wine. It has a deep blackcurrant color with a hint of purple, a restrained nose of crème de cassis, a rich, full mouth with aromas of cassis, black cherries, and a nutty character, and finishes with zesty acidity. This is a wine that ages gracefully and takes on the aromatic character of a Pinot Noir.
Notes on 4 Beaujolais Cru Appellations
Juliénas is an appellation covering wines produced from vineyards in the north of the Beaujolais region of eastern France. The village of Juliénas is named for the Roman leader Julius Caesar, and vineyards have been established here for more than 2000 years. The red, Gamay-based wines of Julienas tend to be heavier than those of the neighboring appellation of Saint-Amour, with rustic characters of spice, flowers and red fruit.
Côte de Brouilly covers the slopes of the dormant Mont Brouilly volcano in central Beaujolais. The area is surrounded completely by the vineyards of the much larger Brouilly appellation, but gives rise to a noticeably different style of wine from the Gamay grape variety – Côte de Brouilly wines are concentrated and elegant, with floral characters, and are less earthy than their Brouilly counterparts. Côte de Brouilly covers one of the smallest areas of any of the Beaujolais crus, and is also one of the southernmost, being just north of the Beaujolais plains where grapes for the famed Beaujolais Nouveauwines are grown.
Fleurie, known as the Queen of Beaujolais and the most popular Cru, is located in the northern part of Beaujolais, the appellation covers the vineyards in the commune of Fleurie, located on the western slopes of the Beaujolais hills. Fleurie wines are some of the most highly regarded in Beaujolais – made from the Gamay grape variety, they are light, silky and supple, with characteristic floral and berry aromas. Fleurie is in the center of the Beaujolais crus, sitting just south of Moulin-a-Vent and Chenas and to the north of its equally famous stablemate of Morgon. The area's vineyards sit on south- and southeast-facing slopes overlooking the Saone River valley, where they are exposed to warm morning sunshine during the growing season. Fleurie's vineyards enjoy a temperate continental climate, and are shielded from cold northwesterly weather systems by the hills to the west of Beaujolais. Instead, the region's high sunshine hours are cooled by gentle influences from the Mediterranean Sea in the south. This ensures that ripening is slow and steady, leading to a balance of acidity and flavor in the grapes.
While Fleurie's widespread recognition is often attributed to its evocative name, the region is actually named after a Roman general, Floricum, rather than for any floral traits in the wine. Vines were planted here in the early Middle Ages by Benedictine monks, and vineyards were expanded in the 15th Century by the Lyonnais bourgeoisie. Fleurie wines were widely distributed in France and England in the 19th Century, and the commune was granted its AOC in the 1930s, along with seven other areas in northern Beaujolais.
Morgon is one of the ten Beaujolais crus located on the slopes of the Beaujolais hills on the western side of the Saone River. The wines made here from the Gamay grape variety tend to be denser than those made in much of the rest of Beaujolais, often with cherry and dark fruit characters and a fleshy, juicy texture - lush, jammy, robust -that is not common in Beaujolais wines. Morgon wines age so distinctively and consistently that the region's name is often used as a verb to describe this process: 'il morgonne'.
The most distinctive feature of Morgon's terroirs is the weathered, decomposing soil made up of granite and schist, with some volcanic influences. These soils, ranging in texture from sandy loams to heavier clays, are rich in iron and contribute an earthy depth to the wines that is not characteristically found in any of the other Beaujolais Cru.
As in much of the Beaujolais region, the vineyards are protected from cold north-westerly winds by the hills immediately west of Beaujolais. Instead, a warm, dry foehn wind develops on the eastern slopes of these hills, drying the vineyards after rain and helping to prevent fungal vine diseases such as mildew. The wide, shallow valley of the Saone River offers no topographical barriers to sunlight, and as such the vines benefit from plentiful sunshine during the growing season, helping the development of phenols and sugars in the grapes. This is moderated by some cooling influences from the Mediterranean Sea, some way to the south, allowing for the retention of acidity in the wines.
While the Gamay grape variety is undoubtedly the star of Morgon wines, some white grape varieties are permitted in the final blend, namely Chardonnay, Aligote and Melon de Bourgogne. Although there are no officially defined quantities for these varieties, the Morgon blend is controlled by limiting the proportion of these vines that are permitted in the vineyard to no more than 15%.
