A Beaujolais that falls in the pantheon of the most delicious, and greatest, wines in the world?

Written by Pascaline Lepeltier, MOF   

                                                                                                                                                                                     11/16/2020

Introduction and Terroirs - Part 1 of 3

Map by James Sligh, Children's Atlas of Wine

INTRODUCTION 
The famous British critic Andrew Jefford, in his benchmark book The New France (published in 2002) once dubbed Beaujolais an “Enigma”. It is a mystery to find that eighteen years later, high quality Beaujolais has yet to earn its place amongst the greatest wines of the world. While the amount of wine professionals, savvy connoisseurs & collectors all over the world is sky-rocketing, looking for the rarest crus and the most compelling labels, few seem to hold a firm understanding of the complexity, quality and age-worthiness that can be found in this wine region. Beaujolais wines, especially from the 10 crus in the north of the appellation, are much more than just versatile, jovial wines and lip-smacking glou-glous.  They can definitely tick that box, but they can also be found to convey depth, grace and remarkable terroir-expression with very unique individual character. Now that the lieux-dits are popping up more and more on labels - we all know Morgon Côte de Py or Corcelette, but what about Dutraive’s Fleurie Champagne or Foillard’s Morgon Les Charmes? - you realize you need to read Beaujolais like you read the Climats in the Côte d’Or, or the Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive in Barolo! Yet what differs is the value.  An absolutely ridiculous amount of work is required to produce such wines, the evidence of which is revealed in the equal pleasure one can experience by drinking today or within a decade.  The pool of talent is growing every year, reclaiming their region, their lieux-dits and their old vines from the industrial and artificial Beaujolais Nouveau tsunami. With a succession of age-worthy vintages like 2018, Beaujolais and its crus are a real treasure trove when you know where to look.

LOCATION
Beaujolais covers roughly 15,000 ha, planted at 98% with Gamay à jus noir and producing 12 AOCs (a pyramid with the Beaujolais AOC as regional appellation at the bottom, Beaujolais-Villages at the center, and the 10 crus at the top). Administratively Beaujolais as a winemaking region belongs to Burgundy since 1930, with some AOCs and communes shared, yet its climate and geology are more affiliated to the Northern Rhône, and most of its acreage is located in the Rhône department. But without a doubt, Beaujolais has an identity of its own. Clustered between Mâcon and Lyon, a historical market for Beaujolais wines, the 30 miles of vineyards stretches between the alluvial plain of the Saône on the eastern side and the remarkably steep granitic and metamorphic slopes of the Monts du Beaujolais on the west. Within 15 miles, elevation goes up very quickly from the flat plots of the main city of the region Villefranche-sur-Saône at 200 meters altitude to the highest vineyards above 1500 feet. Four rivers - the Mauvaise, Ardières, Vauxonne and Azergues - flow from the mountains to the Saône, creating smaller valleys and micro-climates, a little bit like the combes of the Côte d’Or.

Not unlike in Barolo, the height and mineral composition of terroirs vary dramatically. The reading grid applied to the famous Piemontese region appears to be very pertinent for the Beaujolais, especially the northern part.   You lose the appellation above a certain elevation (no crus’ vineyards are above 500 meters to guarantee ripeness), you have a multitude of expositions (all but west) and variations of soils expressed by wines made from single grape varieties are highly noticeable if winemaking is restrained.

Beaujolais is usually divided into two regions.  In the north, bordering the Mâconnais, Haut-Beaujolais covers the hills dedicated to the Beaujolais-Villages (the 10 crus and their staggering terroir diversity). The Bas-Beaujolais, mainly south of Villefranche-sur-Saône, produces the majority of regular Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Supérieur and Beaujolais-Nouveau as well as some Beaujolais Blanc on its sedimentary terroirs (the Pierres Dorées or golden limestone from the Jurassic period mixed with some younger alluvial soils) where more and more solid bottlings are made. A quick note here: Beaujolais can be white, rosé or red, and the Chardonnay coming from the area gets better and better every year as fantastic  value daily table wine.

TERROIR & GEOLOGY
When you think of Beaujolais terroir granite comes to mind immediately. This is an unfortunate short-cut pushed for years by different marketing boards and negoce to over simplify the diversity of the area : it was easier to sell a tutti-fruity simplistic picture of  Beaujolais to the world than convey its true complexity (more on the Beaujolais Nouveau and the carbonic maceration further down). So, the Beaujolais and granite narrative is really only partially true: only 1 cru - Chiroubles - is a 100% on pink granite!  All the others are on a variation of mixed soils, more than 300.  Recognizing their mistake, and the gold under their feet, the Interpro (the union of producers and bottlers) undertook a massive geological work of exploration of the soil diversity over the last 10 years, resulting in extremely precise maps for each appellation and cru, as well as multiple exchanges between geologues and wine producers. The goal? To understand the variations between cuvées, to raise the quality by more precise viticulture & winemaking, and to recognize the legitimacy of the historic lieux-dits - some identified since centuries -  in order to push specific  official 1er crus in the near future!

Why is it so complex? Like in Alsace, it is due to the geological faults and erections. The terroir of Beaujolais was “created” in 4 steps:
500 million years ago, volcanoes erupted, creating the geological base on which France rests-the Hercynien primary rock. This gave three types of soils : the magmatic or igneous rocks rich in silicates and feldspath which take two forms-either in the form of erupted lava giving volcanic soil like basalt and co., or in the form of intrusive magma which stayed under the Earth’s crust and never blew up, like granite and co.; and the last  type of soil is metamorphic rock like schiste.  All these soils will reappear in the northern part of Beaujolais later.

By -150 million years, the volcanoes got totally weathered by extreme climatic events, rendering the area flat and covered by seas and oceans.  Sedimentation of algae, shellfish, and fish skeletons occured, giving layers of different types of limestone, sand and clay.

Starting - 50 million years ago, the Alps & Pyrénées erupted. Their energies beget the collapses of different plains, including the Bresse & the Saône on the eastern and southern parts of Beaujolais. They also pushed up the Massif Central, creating the Monts du Beaujolais on the western part as high as 3000 feet.

Finally, during the last 3 million years different glacial migrations brought more clay-sandy soils, generating valleys and rivers flowing west to east and creating alluvial terraces.

Because of this complex history, you can find an incredible diversity of soils one can classify in 3 large groups:

Some magmatic or igneous rocks, mostly granite but also gneiss and other volcanic rocks. They are the backbone of the western and northern part of the area.

Some sedimentary soils, either limestone and marls on the eastern part of the Beaujolais, alluvial by the rivers, or weathered rocks at the foothills (piedmont) of the hills and in the valleys.

Some metamorphic rocks coming either from sedimentary or igneous bases, but transformed by heat and pressure into a new type of rocks : here are the schists, the diorite or blue-green stones specific of certain crus like Morgon, Juliénas or Côte-de-Brouilly and a multitude of other variations.

What does this all mean for the style of wines?
You will find in fact 2 big families matching the Haut and the Bas Beaujolais split. In the south and east, you will get lighter, more fruit-forward gamay grown on sedimentary soil, i.e. mostly Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Nouveau. Being also closer to Lyon, the area historically produced a more youthful style sold right away after harvest.

In the northwest, it is a completely different story. The soils can be made of granite more or less decomposed (when it is totally weathered in sand it takes the name of “gore”), pink or red depending on the level of iron, usually with little topsoil : the soil is acidic but well-drained, easy to work but sensitive to hydric stress, giving very aromatic wines with softer tannins. Yet when you have some volcanic and metamorphic soils like the pierres pourries, rotten blue-green schistes or diorite in Morgon, you find a richer, neutral soil with more clay giving way to more powerful wines, with more structured tannins and darker tones. These wines were historically sold to northern markets, and in order to be able to travel were made with longer maceration and aging.

Of course, on top of this, you need to add the exposure and altitude: more than 850 ha of Beaujolais have a steepness superior to 30%, which officially classifies them as mountain viticulture, or heroic viticulture. Vineyards facing north with 40% slope at 1200 feet won’t give the same wines than the one facing south on a 5% slope at 600 feet, even though on the same soil, and made with the same grape by the same vigneron! Designating communes as crus, and inside looking for lieux-dits makes total sense. You find lighter crus, and more powerful plots!

Let’s take a look at the different crus, from north to south. They cover around 6,000 ha - the same acreage as the group of the famous communes of the Médoc, or 3 times Barolo’s surface. Once again, their profile is very different, and you should think about them the way you think about the difference between Pinots from Gevrey-Chambertin vs Chambolle-Musigny vs Pommard - in weight, structure and variation of aromatic profile.

Continue reading ⇒ Carbonic (And Semi-Carbonic) Maceration - Part 2 of 3