Do try Beaujolais wines but give that “Nouveau” stuff a miss!

November 13, 2019

Over the weekend I spotted a poster promoting an event to celebrate this year’s “Beaujolais Nouveau” on 21st November and it jogged my memory that I was going to write about Beaujolais following a brief, recent visit to the region.

Sadly, Beaujolais is all too often associated with “Beaujolais Nouveau”, which to my palette is the largely undrinkable stuff that is celebrated worldwide in November each year and served well before it has the chance to turn into a wine. Beaujolais Nouveau is slightly preferable to drinking methylated spirits but the real wines from the region, the “Beaujolais Crus” are excellent and lovingly crafted from the Gamay grape into the softest and juiciest of reds.

The ten appellations of the Beaujolais Crus are: Morgon, Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly. I have tried at least one of each of these and have never had one I really didn’t like, but my favourites always seem to be from Brouilly, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent. In a previous life, we used to run a luxury hotel-barge on the French canals and serving top wines was always our goal so I don’t want you to think trying all this wine was an indulgent, amateur hobby, it was all done in the interests of serving better wine to our discerning clients (!).

Our recent, brief stop in the Beaujolais region was one of those lucky, spontaneous happenings that could only possibly work if you were travelling in a campervan. We were on our way back from a business trip in the very south of France and were feeling a bit scratchy and sick of the drive having driven all the way there just the previous day. Beaujolais was on our route home (about three hours from our base, literally just off the main North/South A6 motorway) and we were about to pass it just as we had agreed we really did not want to push on any further that day.

As we left the A6 motorway, we racked our brains to remember the winemaker we used to buy from over ten years earlier and by some miracle, remembered his name. Google maps took us straight to his door and we arrived just in time to join another couple for the last tasting of the day. His wine is as magnificent as we remembered so we bought a fair bit of it then headed up into the hills above the vineyards to spend the night there. Within five minutes of leaving the winemaker we found a lovely spot with fabulous vineyard views and parked up for the night.

Domaine Gaget was the winemaker: www.domaine-gaget.fr and the wine we liked most was his 2015 Cuvee Joseph at €16 per bottle. This is three times the amount we typically spend on a bottle of wine so you have to believe us when we say this wine is exceptional.

If you have not explored the Beaujolais region before, we suggest you spend a bit more time than just one night there. A week will do it justice and The Beaujolais Tourist Office team have a great website that gives wine trails, tasting cellars and information on everything else to see and do in the area, from castle visits to hiking or cycling routes, here is their site: www.destination-beaujolais.com/en/

If you are planning a trip in the new year, don’t forget to take in a few French wine festivals for a great way to taste the wines from any appellation, read more about wine festivals on our web page here: www.eurocampingcars.com/blog/enjoy-the-wine-festivals-of-france/