Cru Beaujolais (4 May 2017)

Cru Beaujolais

May 4, 2017

Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Julienas, Morgon, Moulin-a-Vent, Regnie, Saint-Amour - these are the ten crus of Beaujolais; the villages whose names are permitted to be used on the label in lieu of "Beaujolais-Villages." Ten crus, but one grape - Gamay.

While geographically close to Burgundy, Beaujolais is different in several key ways. Pinot Noir, while it is grown here, takes a back seat to Gamay - in Burgundy the opposite is true. Why? Soil type. Pinot Noir loves limestone/clay, upon which some of the most famous vineyards in the world have flourished. Gamay loves granite and the acidic soils it produces. Thibault Liger-Belair's Bourgogne Les Deux Terres combines Côte d'Or Pinot Noir with Beaujolais Gamay. If he had used Côte d'Or Gamay, Thibault could have used the appellation "Bourgogne-Passetoutgrains," but he prefers using Gamay grown in Beaujolais. Tasting it, I can understand why. With 60% Beaujolais Gamay in the mix, the resulting wine is both fresh and deep - a best of both worlds sort of wine. 

Thibault regards Beaujolais so highly that he has purchased an estate in Moulin-a-Vent (Domaine des Pierres Roses). He farms his Beaujolais vineyards with the same care as he farms his Côte d'Or Burgundy vineyards, and makes all of his wine, whether Gamay or Pinot Noir, in the traditional Burgundy fashion. In other words, carbonic maceration (aka whole cluster fermentation), popular in mass-market Beaujolais production, is not utilized, by Thibault, or his more quality-conscious neighbors, such as Diochon (Moulin-a-Vent); Lapierre or Jean Foillard (Morgon); Chateau Thivin (Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly), to name just a few excellent Cru Beaujolais producers. Combining Burgundian wine making tradition with Beaujolais fruit is not a new thing; it is a return to a time in Beaujolais before the craze for Beaujolais Nouveau. Thibault told me a story about a recent tasting of older wines - vintages from the 1940s and '50s - where Chateau Thivin's 1948 Côte de Brouilly was his favorite wine among some of the Côte d'Or's most famous labels.

The crus you are most likely to encounter - Moulin-a-Vent, Morgon, Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie - are home to some fantastic winegrowers, for sure, but they provide an incomplete picture of Cru Beaujolais. The variety of terroir and style is broad and complicated, much like Burgundy, or its southern neighbor, the northern Rhone Valley - another region focused on a single varietal. Gamay versus Pinot Noir, or Syrah for that matter? I'd rather not play that game since I don't see it as an either-or situation. I do think, however, that as Burgundy prices hit stratospheric levels (five or six consecutive short crops will do that), it is a good time to get to know Cru Beaujolais. Gamay is not Pinot Noir, nor is it necessary to choose one varietal over another. What is clear from tasting over the past several years is that Cru Beaujolais deserves way more attention than it is receiving.