Back For More Beaujolais 

BY NEAL MARTIN | AUGUST 26, 2021

My first foray into Beaujolais was not writing about it, but shipping it from one side of the world to the other. Mea culpa: I played my part in the not-so-carbon-neutral tradition of freighting jumbo jets full of Beaujolais Nouveau to Japan every third Thursday in November. Fortunately, I was never asked to dive into a swimming pool foaming with Gamay. I just had to get it there on the dot.

Back then, Beaujolais Nouveau defined the region. But there was another side to Beaujolais, inspired by the work of Jules Chauvet, which gestated a counter-movement of terroir-driven, low-intervention and sulfur-free wines, often made according to organic or biodynamic principles. Beaujolais was ahead of the game as these tenets spread around the world. To this day, the region remains home to both high-volume, commercially minded producers and tiny artisan winemakers. 

During my six weeks in France this June, I spent three days in Beaujolais to assist my colleague Josh Raynolds, who was unable to travel during lockdown. He sent me a list of producers likely to be absent from his report, and I did my best to fill in the gaps. The organizational body InterBeaujolais did a sterling job of arranging a professional tasting in Villefranche-sur-Saône, and then afternoons were spent visiting growers. So, readers should treat this as a supplementary report aimed at providing the widest coverage possible.

I must admit that initially I was tentative about adding to an already intense workload. Did I want to take on more? I was still decompressing from three weeks of tasting in Bordeaux, not to mention all the driving. But you can guess what happened!

Looking south from the hills near Morgon.

As soon as I set eyes on its verdant rolling hills and began conversing with winemakers, as soon as I delved into the local cuisine and drank the wines, I fell head over heels in love with Beaujolais, like an old flame walking back into my life. There is a heart-warming sense of simplicity here that is becoming a rare commodity. Whereas the Côte d’Or fights to retain its spirit as corporations buy the choicest cuts of vineyard and its wines become unaffordable to its loyal followers, Beaujolais finds itself unburdened with inheritance or tax issues, nor does it witness generations of family ownership snuffed out by the cursory wave of a checkbook. Its wines uphold their raison d’être of being drunk and savored, not misappropriated as investment vehicles. That might change as the standard of Beaujolais achieves new heights, but today the region offers more and more outstanding wines at a level of affordability that is winning fans, consumers, sommeliers and merchants alike. Sure, there is a hipster element to Beaujolais that occasionally seems to take prominence over the cardinal rule that wine must be fault-free and delicious irrespective of philosophy. Even though, given the brevity of my trip, I could only take a snapshot, it was patently clear that Beaujolais remains a dynamic region with much to offer. 

I am going to broach my findings by appellation.