Buy Some, Try Some: Beaujolais 2022-2024

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 17, 2025

Thirty-one.

A Chiroubles from Jules Metras glistens like a cut ruby. The nose onomatopoeically “pings” with Morello cherries and wild strawberries. It makes me think of a young child, arms out wide, spinning round and round in circles without a single care in the world. It tastes life-affirmingly vibrant and citrus-fresh. It shimmers with nascent energy, yet there is genuine complexity, with a crystalline finish rendering it impossible to resist another sip.

The price? Thirty-one euros.

That’s the restaurant price.

So, if there is a Beaujolais-shaped hole in your heart, then it’s time to fill it. Maybe you need a wake-up call, and I’m only too happy to provide it. Do you give Beaujolais a steer for the heinous crime of being unbeatable value-for-money, because, and I hate to use the “c” word, it’s too cheap, just like that Chiroubles? Cheapness equates to low quality…doesn’t it?

C’mon. You’re cleverer than that.

Beaujolais has reinvented itself over the last two decades. It’s time to expand your horizons beyond the Pinot Noir that you begrudgingly shell out for each year, much of it now too expensive to drink. Your tastebuds will be eternally grateful, and so will your bank account.

As usual, I visited Beaujolais in early March, when the serried rows of goblet vines that look as if they’ve been screwed into the hillsides are rubbing the sleep from their eyes as the new season dawns. Vines were more dormant than usual since the first three months of 2025 had been colder than normal. It was a “proper” winter, to quote one vigneron, beneficial for killing bugs and viruses and for allaying fears of a late spring frost wreaking havoc after a tumultuous 2024 saw lower yields (albeit not to the devastating degrees of some parts in the Côte d’Or or Chablis). On the other hand, winemaker Mee Godard drove home the financial precipice she faces: “Some of my vineyards were damaged by frost,” she rued. “I still picked the fruit, but if it happened again, I might not.” In other words, the cost of labour means she would lose money on each bottle, even though Godard justifiably charges more for her wines than many of her peers.