Wine Region - Beaujolais

Beaujolais

Beaujolais is not a broad region but it is a sub region of Burgundy. Among other sub regions including: Cote De Beaune, Cote De Nuits, and Cote Chalonnaise.

This region was first cultivated by the Romans who planted along the trading route up to Saone valley. The prominent vineyard was Brulliacus established on the hills of Mount Brouilly.  From the 7^th century through the middle ages, most of the viticulture/winemaking was done by Benedictine monks. In the tenth century, the region got its name from the town of Beaujeu, Rhone and was under control by the Lords of Beaujeu until the 15^th century. At this point, it ceded to the Duchy of Burgundy. The Beaujolais wines then became renown after the expansion of the French railroad system opened up the Paris market. Beaujolais Nouveau wine has helped this region and wine hit an international peak. Beaujolais Nouveau is lighter and fruiter in style than the basic Beaujolais and is picked, fermented, bottled, and available at local retailers in a matter of weeks. It also offers the wine consuming public a sample of the quality of the vintage and style that the winemaker will produce in his regular Beaujolais for release the following spring.

The two major grape varieties in the broad region of Burgundy are Pinot Noir and Gamay. Under Appellation d’ Origine Controlee laws, all red Burgundies are made from the Pinot Noir grape, except Beaujolais, which is produced from the Gamay grape. There are white wines made from this region, but they only made up one percent of production. This miniscule minority is made with Chardonnay grapes and Aligote.

The French Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC) imposes regulations on the wine made on this region. As stated earlier, under their laws, all red Burgundies are made from the Pinot Noir grape in the Burgundy region except for this region of Beaujolais. There are twelve main appellations of Beaujolais wines covering the production of more than ninety six villages. They make restrictions on minimum alcohol levels (10%) and maximum yields of a vineyard.

The wine in this sub region of Beaujolais is made from one hundred percent Gamay grapes. However, in other regions in the broad region of Burgundy, the main grape is Pinot Noir.

There are three different quality levels of Beaujolais: Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, and Cru. The quality level of Beaujolais is the the basic level which accounts for the majority of all Beaujolais produced. This is very inexpensive. The next quality level is Beaujolais-Villages which comes from certain villages in Beaujolais. There are thirty five villages that consistently produce better wines. Most Beaujolais Villages are a blend of various wines that come from these villages and usually there is no one village name that is included on the label. These wines are usually moderate in price. The highest quality level is Cru which is actually named for the village that produces the highest quality of Beaujolais. The price for these wines is very expensive. There are ten crus: Brouilly, Chenas, Chiroubles, Cote De Brouilly, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgon, Moulin A Vent, Regnie, and Saint-Amour.

The wine’s style is normally light and fruity from this region. This wine is intended to be consumed while it is young and it can be chilled. These wines usually have high acidity content. There are over 44000 acres of vines planted in a 34 mile stretch of land that is between 7 to 9 miles wide. The wines in this region are produced by the wine-making technique known as semi-carbonic maceration. Clusters of grapes are put in cement or stainless steel tanks and the bottom third of the grapes get crushed under the weight of gravity. This results in the must to begin normal yeast fermentation with ambient yeasts found naturally on the skins of the grapes. Carbon dioxide is released and begins to saturate the grapes that are still in the barrel. The carbon dioxide gets into the skins of the grapes and begins to stimulate fermentation at an intra-cellular level because of an absence of oxygen in the wine-making environment. The wine becomes real fruity as a result with a minute number of tannins.

This region is generally warmer than the whole of Burgundy with vintages more consistently ripening the grapes fully. The soil of Beaujolais divides this region in to a northern and southern area. The northern half of Beaujolais, where Cru is generally made, includes hills of schist and granite based soils with limestone. In the southern half of this area, the terrain is flatter with rich sandstone and clay based soils. The angle of the hillside vineyards in the northern area exposes the grapes to more sun which leads to earlier harvest than vineyards in the south.

Beaujolais is the best-selling Burgundy in the United States by a land slide and there is an abundance of this wine. It is very easy to drink and it very affordable to the general public. Most bottles cost around ten to twenty dollars, although your higher quality wines would obviously be way more expensive. In an average year, Beaujolais produces twelve million cases of wine out of the total nineteen million cases coming out of Burgundy. A crazy fact about this region is that all the grapes in Beaujolais are picked by hand.