📍 Beaujolais

Beaujolais is a hilly wine region in eastern France, north of Lyon and south of Mâcon. It lies next to Burgundy. The main grape for red and rosé wines is Gamay, which gives light, fruity and floral red wines.

The northern part sits on granite and other ancient crystalline rocks. Here lie the Beaujolais-Villages zone and separate cru appellations such as Juliénas, Morgon, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent and Saint-Amour. These wines are fuller and can age for several years. In the south, clay and limestone dominate, and the wines are lighter and fruitier. Further south, the region borders the Coteaux du Lyonnais.

To preserve fruitiness, producers traditionally use a local winemaking method inspired by semi-carbonic maceration. The best-known young wine is Beaujolais Nouveau, released to consumers on the third Thursday of November.

Besides reds, rosé and white wines are made; the whites come from Chardonnay alone.

Beaujolais has twelve appellations: Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages and ten crus. The ten crus make only still dry red, mainly from Gamay; the largest is Brouilly at about 1,180 ha and the smallest Chénas at about 220 ha. Soils are a patchwork of pink granite, blue stone, limestone, clay and old piedmont deposits, and the harvest is still mostly by hand.