Beaujolais and its wines are easy to understand, easy to buy, and easy to love. With few exceptions, they are juicy, bubble-gum reds produced in a light style for easy drinking. A huge amount of red Beaujolais is produced, all of it made solely from the Gamay grape. A small quantity of white wine is also produced from Chardonnay.
The region of Beaujolais is situated between Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, marked by rolling granite hills and a warm climate that allows grapes to ripen easily just about every year. The friendliness and fruitiness of the wines are enhanced by a winemaking method that pushes fruitiness to the max. It is called carbonic maceration, which entails placing whole, unbroken grapes into a large stainless-steel vat and then enveloping them with carbon dioxide gas. In this “hostile” environment, the whole grapes use their own internal enzymes to try to consume the sugars. In the process they create alcohol, just as yeasts would. Basically, the grapes ferment from the inside out. Because this process involves very little movement or violent activity, the wines are lower in color and tannin levels, making them light and easy to drink.
In addition to the huge quantity of simple, fruity red wines, there are also some more intense red styles of Beaujolais, made by traditional winemaking methods, and well worth seeking out.
In truth, Beaujolais is all about red wines, from the fresh nouveau wine to age-worthy wines with greater depth and more complex flavors. Here are the basic styles of Beaujolais and the names to look for on their labels.
Beaujolais Nouveau
Every year, Beaujolais producers launch their nouveau or primeur wines on a “show me the money” schedule: grapes are harvested in September, the wine is made in October, and the bottles are sold on retail shelves starting the third Thursday of November, with cash in the bank in December. Although international excitement about the release of these wines has faded, they can still be fun to try. The irony is that when they are released in the fall, just in time for Thanksgiving, these Beaujolais Nouveau wines really don’t have the guts—the body, the complexity—to successfully marry with our traditional holiday dinner. But if you can wait until April (when the price is likely to be heavily discounted) they make a great spring wine, chilled for a picnic or even for that first summer barbecue. Just beware that the wine has not lost too much of its zippy freshness.
Beaujolais Villages
This label name tells you that the grapes came from vineyards within thirty eight villages, all located in the northern part of Beaujolais. Here, in vineyards rich in granite-based soils, the grapes tend to ripen more than elsewhere in the region. A good Beaujolais Villages wine should be bright, ripe, and full of fruit in its aroma, with a smooth texture on your palate.
The Best of Beaujolais
Wines labeled as Beaujolais Nouveau or Beaujolais Villages are juicy, enjoyable, inexpensive, and fun, perfect with a burger or a pizza. But some of the most exciting wines are often referred to as Cru Beaujolais. These wines come from any one of ten villages in the Beaujolais region and are labeled with the village name. The vineyards within these villages are recognized as premium sites, and the depth of flavors, pigments, and tannins in the grapes respond very well to more traditional winemaking methods to produce full-flavored, structured wines, with darker colors and a more assertive, more complex set of characteristics. In many ways, they approach their Pinot Noir cousins to the north in Burgundy, with red berry, cherry, and plum flavors, and a touch of earthiness to add interest.
The ten villages that have earned the privilege to use their name on the label are Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, Regnie, and St-Amour. Moulin-a-Vent and Morgon are usually the longest-lived of the ten crus, meaning that they can age about five years or more. The other wines are meant for early enjoyment. Although Cru Beaujolais wines are more expensive than Beaujolais Villages, they still represent some of the great bargains in delicious red wine.
