Beaujolais

Jeffrey

Beaujolais

• Beaujolais is a French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine generally made of the Gamay grape which has a thin skin and is low in tannins

Not Labeled Varietally

• Like most AOC wines they are not labeled varietally

Can be White

• Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made mostly with Chardonnay grapes though Aligoté is also permitted

Light-bodied

• Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity

• In some vintages, Beaujolais produces more wine than the Burgundy wine regions of Chablis, Côte d'Or, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais put together

Name

• The wine takes its name from the historical Beaujolais province and wine producing region

Location

• It is located north of Lyon, and covers parts of the north of the Rhône département (Rhône-Alpes) and parts of the south of the Saône-et-Loire département (Burgundy)

Much Difference

• While administratively considered part of the Burgundy wine region, the climate is closer to the Rhône and the wine is unique enough to be considered separately from Burgundy and Rhône

• The region is known internationally for its long tradition of winemaking, uniquely emphasized the use of carbonic maceration, and more recently for the popular Beaujolais nouveau

Beaujolais Nouveau

• A red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France

• Fermented for just a few weeks then officially released for sale on the third Thursday of November

• This “Beaujolais Day”, or “Beaujolais Nouveau Day” sees heavy marketing from the producers, with races to get the first bottles of the vintage to different markets

Gamay Grape

• Gamay noir is now known to be a cross of Pinot noir and the ancient white variety Gouais

Gamay Grape

• Gouais is a Central European variety that was probably introduced to northeastern France by the Romans

• In contrast to the Pinot Noir variety, Gamay ripened two weeks earlier and was less difficult to cultivate

• It also produced a strong, fruitier wine in a much larger abundance

Climate and Geography

• Beaujolais is a large wine producing region, about twice the size of the US state of Rhode Island and larger than any single district of Burgundy

• There are over 50,000 acres (20,234 hectares) of vines planted in a 34 miles (55 km) stretch of land that between 7 to 9 miles wide (11 to 14 km)

• Many of Beaujolais vineyards are found in the hillside on the outskirt of Lyons in the eastern portion of the region along the Saône valley

Massif Central

• The Massif Central is located to the west and has a tempering influence on Beaujolais' climate

South of Burgundy

• The region is located south of the Burgundy wine region Mâconnais with nearly 100 communes in the northern region of Beaujolais overlapping between the AOC boundaries Beaujolais and the Maconnais region of Saint-Véran

Climate

• The climate of Beaujolais is semi-continental with some temperate influences

• The close proximity of the Mediterranean Sea does impart some Mediterranean influence on the climate

• The region is overall, warmer than Burgundy with vintages more consistently ripening the grapes fully

• By the time that the Beaujolais Nouveau is released in late November, the foothills in the western regions will have normally seen snow

• A common viticultural hazard is spring time frost

Soils

• The soils of Beaujolais divide the region into a northern and southern half, with the town of Villefranche serving as a near dividing point

• The northern half of Beaujolais, where most of the Cru Beaujolais communes are located, includes rolling hills of schist and granite based soils with some limestone

• On hillsides, most of the granite and schist is found in the upper slopes with the lower slopes having more stone and clay composition

Soils

• The southern half of the region, also known as the Bas Beaujolais, has more flatter terrain with richer, sandstone and clay based soils with some limestone patches

• The Gamay grape fares differently in both regions-producing more structured, complex wines in the north and more lighter, fruity wines in the south

• The angle of the hillside vineyards in the north exposes the grapes to more sunshine which leads to harvest at an early time than the vineyards in the south

Appellations

• There are twelve main appellations of Beaujolais wines covering the production of more than 96 villages in the Beaujolais region

• They were originally established in 1936, with additional crus being promoted in 1938 and 1946, plus Régnié in 1988

• About half of all Beaujolais wine is sold under the basic Beaujolais AOC designation

• The majority of this wine is produced in the southern Bas Beaujolais region located around the town of Belleville

• The minimum alcohol level for these wines is 10%

Beaujolais Supérieur

• If the grapes are harvested a little later, or the wine is subjected to chaptalization, to get the alcohol up to 10.5% the wine may be labeled as Beaujolais Supérieur

• The only difference between basic Beaujolais and Beaujolais Supérieur is this slight increase in alcohol

Beaujolais AOC

• The most extended appellation covering 60 villages, and refers to all basic Beaujolais wines

• It implies a minimum alcohol of just 9%• Beaujolais Supérieur implies wine with more than 10%

alcohol• A large portion of the wine produced under this

appellation is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau• The maximum yield for this AOC is 55 hl/ha (3.1

tons/acre• Annually, this appellation averages around 75 million

bottles a year in production

Beaujolais-Villages AOC

• The intermediate category in terms of classification, covers 39 communes/villages in the Haut Beaujolais, the northern part of the region accounting for a quarter of production

• Some is sold as Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau, but it is not common

• Most of the wines are released in the following March after the harvest

• The terrain of this region is hillier with more schist and granite soil composition than what is found in the regions of the Beaujolais AOC and the wine has the potential to be of higher quality

Beaujolais-Villages AOC

• If the grapes come from the area of a single vineyard or commune, producers can affix the name of their particular village to the Beaujolais-Villages designation

• Since most of the villages of Beaujolais, outside of those classified as Cru Beaujolais, villages have little international name recognitions most producers choose to maintain the Beaujolais-Villages designation

• The maximum permitted yields for this AOC is 50 hl/ha• These wines are meant to be consumed young, within

two years of their harvest

Beaujolais-Villages AOC

• Several of the communes in the Beaujolais-Villages AOC also qualify to produce their wines under the Mâconnais and Saint-Véran AOCs

• The Beaujolais producers that produce a red wine under the Beaujolais-Villages appellation will often produce their white wine under the more internationally recognized names of Mâcon-Villages or Saint-Véran

Cru Beaujolais

• The highest category of classification in Beaujolais, account for the production within ten villages/areas in the foothills of the Beaujolais mountains

• Unlike Burgundy and Alsace, the phrase cru in Beaujolais refers to an entire wine producing area rather than an individual vineyard

• Seven of the Crus relate to actual villages while Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly refer to the vineyards areas around Mont Brouilly and Moulin-à-Vent is named for a local windmill

Cru Beaujolais

• These wines do not usually show the word "Beaujolais" on the label, in an attempt to separate themselves from mass-produced Nouveau

• In fact vineyards in the cru villages are not allowed to produce Nouveau

• The maximum yields for Cru Beaujolais wine is 48 hl/ha• Their wines can be more full-bodied, darker in color, and

significantly longer-lived• From north to south the Beaujolais crus are- Saint-Amour,

Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly

Beaujolais Blanc & Beaujolais Rosé

• A small amount of white wine made from Chardonnay or Aligote is grown in the region and used to produce Beaujolais Blanc or Beaujolais-Villages Blanc

• The vineyards to produces these wines are normally found in the limestone soils of the far northern extremities of the region

• Part of the reason for the small production of these wines is that many of the vineyards overlap into the Mâconnais regions and producers will usually choose to label their wines under the more marketable and well known Mâcon Blanc designation

Beaujolais Blanc & Beaujolais Rosé

• There is also regulations in several Beaujolais communes restricting growers to dedicating no more than 10% of their vineyard space to white wine grape varieties

• Beaujolais Rosé made from Gamay is permitted in the Beaujolais AOC but is rarely produced

Beaujolais Crus

• The ten Beaujolais Crus differ in character• The following three crus produce the lightest

bodied Cru Beaujolais and are typically meant to be consumed within three years of the vintage– Brouilly– Régnié – Chiroubles

Beaujolais Crus

• The next three crus produce more medium bodied Cru Beaujolais that Master of Wine Mary Ewing-Mulligan recommend needs at least a year aging in the bottle and to be consumed within fours years of the vintage– Côte de Brouilly– Fleurie– Saint-Amour

Beaujolais Crus

• The last four crus produce the fullest bodied examples of Cru Beaujolais that need the most time aging in the bottle and are usually meant to be consumed between four to ten years after harvest– Chénas– Juliénas– Morgon – Moulin-à-Vent

Beaujolais Nouveau

• The early history of Beaujolais Nouveau can trace its roots to 19th century when the first wines of the vintage were sent down the Saône to the early bistros of Lyon

• Upon their arrival signs would be put out proclaiming "Le Beaujolais Est Arrivé!" and its consumption was seen as a celebration of another successful harvest

• In the 1960s, this style of simple Beaujolais became increasingly popular worldwide with more than half a million cases of being sold

Beaujolais Nouveau

• In 1985 the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO) established the third Thursday of November to allow for a uniform release date for the wine

• Wines are typically shipped a few days earlier to locations around the world where they must be held in a bonded warehouse till 12:01am when the wines can be first opened and consumed

Beaujolais Nouveau

• Today, about a third of the region's production is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau, a marketing name created by George Duboeuf for the local vin de l'année

• It is the lightest, fruitiest style of Beaujolais and meant for simple quaffing

• Any Beaujolais or Beaujolais-Villages AOC vineyard can produce Beaujolais Nouveau

• The grapes are harvested between late August and early September

• It is fermented for just a few days and released to the public on the third Thursday of November - "Beaujolais Nouveau Day“

Beaujolais Nouveau

• It is the first French wine to be released for each vintage year

• In 1992, at its peak, more than half of all Beaujolais wine was sold as "Beaujolais Nouveau“

• The wines are meant to be drunk as young as possible, when they are at their freshest and fruitiest

• They can last up to one or two years but will have lost most of their characteristic flavors by that point

Viticulture and Grape Varieties

• The Beaujolais region has one of the highest vine density ratio of any major, worldwide wine region with anywhere from 9000 to 13,000 vines per hectare

• Most vines are trained in the traditional goblet style where the spurs of the vines are pushed upwards and arranged in a circle, resembling a chalice

• This method has its roots in the Roman style of vine training and has only recently begun to fall out of favor for the guyot method which involves taking a single or double spur and training it out horizontally

Viticulture

• Harvest usual occurs in late September and is almost universally done by hand rather than with the use of mechanical harvesters

• This is because the Beaujolais wine making style of carbonic maceration utilizes whole bunches of grapes clusters that normally get broken and separated by a mechanical harvester

Grape Varieties

• The Gamay grape, more accurately known as Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc to distinguish it from the Gamay teinturier grapes with red juice and different from the Napa Gamay and the Gamay Beaujolais grapes of California, is the most widely planted grape in Beaujolais accounting for nearly 98% of all plantings

• The remaining plantings are mostly Chardonnay• Aligote vines that were planted prior to 2004 are

permitted in wine production but the entire grape variety is being phased out of the region by 2024

Grape Varieties• According to AOC regulation, up to 15% of white wine grape

varieties can be included in all Beaujolais red wines from the basic Beaujolais AOC to the Cru Beaujolais wines but in practice the wines are almost always 100% Gamay

• Pinot noir, which has very small plantings, is also permitted but that grape is being phased out by 2015 as Beaujolais winemakers continued to focus their winemaking identity on the Gamay grape

• The characteristics that the Gamay grapes adds to Beaujolais is bluish-red deep color with low acidity, moderate tannins and light to medium body

• The aromas associated with the grape itself is typically red berries

Grape Varieties

• Since the 1960s, more focus has been placed on the choice of rootstocks and clonal selection with six approved clones of Gamay for the wine region

• In recent years the rootstock Vialla has gained popularity due to its propensity to produce well in granite soils

• The SO4 and 3309 rootstocks also account for significant plantings

• Clonal selections of the Gamay grape has shifted towards an emphasis on smaller, thicker skinned berries

Winemaking and Style

• Beaujolais wines are produced by the winemaking technique of semi-carbonic maceration

• Whole grape clusters are put in cement or stainless steel tanks with capacities between 40-300 hectoliters (1,056 to 7,920 gallons)

• The bottom third of the grapes gets crushed under the weight of gravity and resulting must begins normal yeast fermentation with ambient yeasts found naturally on the skins of the grapes

• Carbon dioxide is released as a by product of this fermentation and begins the saturate the individual, intact grape berries that remain in the barrel

Winemaking and Style

• The carbon dioxide seeps into the skin of the grape and begin to stimulate fermentation at an intracellular level

• This is caused, in part, because of the absence of oxygen in the winemaking environment

• This results in a fruity wine without much tannin• In the case of Beaujolais nouveau, this process is

completed in as little as four days with the other AOCs being allowed longer time to ferment

• As the grapes ferment longer, they develop more tannins and a fuller body

Winemaking and Style

• After fermentation, the must is normally high in malic acid and producers will put the wine through malolactic fermentation to soften the wine

• The process of chaptalization, adding sugar to the grape must to boost alcohol levels, has been a controversial issue for Beaujolais winemakers

• Historically, Beaujolais producers would pick grapes at ripeness that were at minimum potential alcohol levels of 10-10.5% and then add sugar in order to artificially boost the alcohol levels to the near the maximum of 13-13.5%

• This created wines that lack structure and balance to go with the high alcohol body and mouthfeel

Winemaking and Style

• The recent trend towards higher quality wine production has limited the use of chaptalization in the premium levels of Beaujolais wine

• Filtering the wine, in order to stabilize it, is practiced to varying degrees by Beaujolais winemakers

• Some producers who make Beaujolais on a large commercial scale will filter the wine aggressively, to avoid any impurity or future chemical reactions

• This can have the negative side effect of diminishing some of the wines unique fruit character and leave a flavor that critics have described as Jell-O-like

Winemaking and Style

• Basic Beaujolais is the classic bistro wine of Paris; a fruity, easy-drinking red traditionally served in 1 pint glass bottles known as pot

• This is epitomized in Beaujolais Nouveau, which is fermented for just a few days and can be dominated by estery flavors such as bananas and pear drops

• Basic Beaujolais and Beaujolais nouveau are meant to be drunk within a year of their harvest

Winemaking and Style

• Beaujolais-Villages are generally consumed within 2–3 years and Cru Beaujolais has the potential to age longer, some not even fully developing till at least 3 years after harvest

• Premium examples from Chénas, Juliénas, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent can spend up to 10 years continuing to develop in the bottle and in very good vintages can take on Burgundian qualities of structure and complexity

Serving and Food Pairing

• Wine expert Karen MacNeil has described Beaujolais as "the only white wine that happens to be red“

• Similarly, Beaujolais is often treated like a white wine and served slightly chilled to a lower temperature, the lighter the style

• Beaujolais Nouveau, being the lightest style, is served at about 52 °F (11 °C)

Serving and Food Pairing

• Beaujolais AOC and Beaujolais-Villages are generally served between 56-57 °F (14 °C)

• Cru Beaujolais, especially the fuller bodied examples, can be treated like red Burgundy wine and served at 60-62°F (15-16°C)

• The wines rarely need to be decanted• In Beaujolais, it is traditional to soak the bottles

in buckets of ice water and bring them out to the center villages for picnics and games of boules

Serving and Food Pairing

• Beaujolais wine can be paired with a variety of food according to the lightness and body of the wine

• Beaujolais Nouveau is typically used as an apéritif with basic Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages doing well with light fare, like picnics and salads

• The lighter Cru Beaujolais pair well with poultry and the heavier Crus pairing better with red meats and hearty dishes like stews

Serving and Food Pairing

• In Norway, Beaujolais is a favorite with cod and bacalhau dishes

• According to Lyon chef Paul Bocuse, Beaujolais wine is used to make a traditional regional dessert involving a glass of sliced peaches, topped with black currants and drenched in chilled Beaujolais wine

Thank you very much for your attention!