 Beaujolais might be France’s most popular red wine. If you order “un verre de rouge” at any Parisian café, it’s likely you’ll be served a thirst-quenching glass of fruity Beaujolais. In fact, you could visit a French bistro anywhere in the world and Beaujolais will undoubtedly be on the wine list, and it even has its own internationally celebrated “Beaujolais Day.” Each third Thursday in November, millions rally to the cry of “Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!” to celebrate the just-completed wine harvest, followed by guzzling bottles of barely-fermented Beaujolais Nouveau.
The success of Beaujolais Nouveau made the region prosperous, which is an astonishing achievement for the humble grape variety used in its production: Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. The Gamay grape is an ancient hybrid of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc transported to Burgundy by the Romans. Gamay gave large quantities of good—if not great—wines.
A thousand or so years later, Phillippe the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, outlawed Gamay in 1395, fearing that Gamay would supplant Pinot Noir in the Côte d’Or. He said that Gamay was "a very bad and disloyal plant." Although the Duke was not a fan of Gamay, it was—and is—an extremely gouleyant (gulpable) wine. The Duke’s decree forced Gamay south to Beaujolais.
Beaujolais was a vin de pays, a simple country wine meant for easy drinking, until being granted appellation d'origine côntrolée status in 1936. The appellation rules stipulated that red and rosé Beaujolais had to be produced from 100% Gamay. Beaujolais blanc is rare, although it is still made and must be produced from 100% Chardonnay. Ten villages sit atop the Beaujolais hierarchy and produce the very best wines: St-Amour, Juliénas, Moulin-a-Vent, Chénas, Fleurie, Chirouble, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Another 38 villages qualify for the less prestigious “Beaujolais-Villages” designation. And simpler yet are the wines labeled plainly “Beaujolais.”
The most popular Beaujolais is Beaujolais Nouveau, although “nouveau” wines are not unique to Beaujolais. Throughout Europe, nouveau wines are cheerfully consumed in local establishments at the end of harvest. Beaujolais Nouveau became an international sensation in the 1970s thanks to some cunning marketing, namely by Georges Dubœuf. Dubœuf’s name is synonymous with the rapidly-fermented wine that is stabilized and filtered before it is rushed to markets worldwide and consumed simultaneously on “Beaujolais Day.” It’s no longer a local wine and is by necessity it is an industrialized product made by chemists. The commercially produced and headache-inducing Beaujolais Nouveau of today is perhaps good for Dubœuf but not so good for the image of Beaujolais.
Despite the popularity of nouveau and its commercial success, the Beaujolais region is filled with small growers. The best treasure their old Gamay vines and harvest them by hand. Iconic names like Thévenet, Breton, Foillard, Lapierre, Desvignes, and Descombes are at the forefront of natural winemaking, utilizing native yeasts in their cellars and keeping the use of sulfur to a minimum. With good winemaking comes greater deference to terroir, and specific vineyard names are important indicators of quality, such as: Côte de Py; Corcelette; and Clachet.
|
