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Beaujolais
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Appellation type: |
Appellation d'origine contrôlée |
|---|---|
| Year established: |
1936 |
| Country: | France |
| Part of: | Burgundy |
| Total area: | 10,500ha |
| Grapes produced: | Gamay with a little Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Aligoté |
| Wine produced: | Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages, cru Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau |
|
Beaujolais (Biôjolês in Arpitan) is a historical province and a wine-producing region in France. 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). The region is known internationally for its long tradition of winemaking, and more recently for the enormously popular Beaujolais nouveau.
The Beaujolais is a French AOC wine generally made of the Gamay grape which has a thin skin and few tannins. Like most AOC wines they are not labelled varietally. Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made with Chardonnay grapes. Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity.
Most Beaujolais is red wine made from Gamay grapes. Basic Beaujolais is the classic "bistro" wine of Paris, fruity easy-drinking red that is not intended for long keeping. This is epitomised in Beaujolais Nouveau (see below), which is fermented for just a few weeks and which can be dominated by estery flavours such as bananas and pear-drops. However some of the most serious cru wines can wines can be kept for up to 10 years - one of them has even spawned its own verb, "morgonner", to describe how it develops with age into something that resembles the Pinot wines of Burgundy proper. The crus show noticeable differences depending on altitude and the aspect of their slopes.
Beaujolais wines are often produced by the carbonic maceration process. The whole grape cluster is put in a tank while carbon dioxide from the fermentation breaks down the skin of the grape. This results in a fruity wine without much tannin. The AOC's for most of the crus allow up to 15% Pinot Noir, but it will be banned from 2015.
There are a handful of rosé wines produced by allowing the juice contact with the skins for just one day, but they are seldom seen outside the region.
White wines are made from Chardonnay, with a little Aligoté. White wine used to account for more than the current 2% of production, but most of the Chardonnay vineyards were included in the northern Saint-Véran appellation which was created in 1971. St Véran is sometimes (incorrectly) regarded as a synonym for white Beaujolais; both may be regarded as a southern extension of the Maconnais and can produce good value white wines in a Burgundian style.
The Gamay grape is thought to be a mutant of the Pinot Noir, which first appeared in the village of Gamay, south of Beaune, in the 1360s.[1]. The grape brought relief to the village growers following the decline of the Black Death. 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.
In July 1395, the Duke of Burgundy Philippe the Bold outlawed the cultivation of Gamay as being "a very bad and disloyal plant"-due in part to the variety occupying land that could be used for the more "elegant" Pinot Noir. 60 years later, Philippe the Good, issued another edict against Gamay in which he stated the reasoning for the ban is that "The Dukes of Burgundy are known as the lords of the best wines in Christendom. We will maintain our reputation".[2]
The Vins Georges Duboeuf company was charged in 2005 with mixing low-grade wine with fine vintages after a patchy 2004 harvest.[3] Georges Duboeuf denied wrongdoing, blaming human error and pointing out that none of the affected wine was released to consumers.[3] The production manager directly responsible admitted his actions and resigned, and a court found that both "fraud and attempted fraud concerning the origin and quality of wines" had been committed.[3] Fewer than 200,000 liters of the company's annual 270 million liter production were implicated, but L'Affaire Duboeuf, as it was called, was considered a serious scandal.[4]
In December 2007, five people were arrested after reportedly selling nearly 600 tonnes of sugar to growers in Beaujolais. Up to 100 growers were accused of using the sugar for illegal chaptalisation and also of exceeding volume quotas between 2004 and 2006.[5]
The historical capital of the province is Beaujeu (Bôjor / Biôjœr in Arpitan) and the economic capital of the area is Villefranche-sur-Saône (Velafranche).
The Beaujolais Region is located south of Burgundy and its climate is warmer. Because of the difference in region, the Pinot Noir grape normally grown in Burgundy would not do well here. The best soils are mostly granite.
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 fermented for just a few weeks and released to much fanfare on the 3rd Thursday of November - "Beaujolais Nouveau Day". It has been a great success in turning the region's vin ordinaire into a very popular product.
There are twelve appellations of Beaujolais wines. They were originally established in 1936, with additional crus being promoted in 1938 and 1946, plus Régnié in 1988 :
- Beaujolais AOC is 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. Most wine under this appellation is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau.
- Beaujolais-Villages AOC covers 39 communes/villages in the Haut Beaujolais, the northern part of the region accounting for a third of production. Some is sold as Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau, but it is not common. The idea is that the poorer soils and steeper slopes of the -Villages region make wines that are a step up from the basic AOC, but most of the -Villages acreage is also covered by a Grand Cru, and a basic Beaujolais from a good producer will usually be better than a Beaujolais-Villages from a poor producer.
- The Grands Crus - ten villages in the foothills of the Beaujolais mountains. 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. Their wines can be more full-bodied, darker in color, and significantly longer-lived. Most will last 2-3 years, Chénas, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent can improve for up to ten. From north to south the Beaujolais crus are :
- Saint-Amour
- Juliénas
- Chénas
- Moulin-à-Vent
- Fleurie
- Chiroubles
- Morgon
- Régnié
- Brouilly
- Côte de Brouilly
- ^ Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine pg 133. Simon and Schuster 1989
- ^ ibid pg 134
- ^ a b c Samuel, Henry. (2006-07-05.) "King of Beaujolais is convicted over adulterated wines." (News website.) Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
- ^ Walt, Vivienne. (2005-10-03.) "The grapes of wrath." (News website.) CNN.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
- ^ Trouble ferments in Beaujolais country Daily Telegraph 19 December 2007