Beaujolais, Good or Bad Idea?

Sunrise at Beaujolais vineyard

As the rosé, Beaujolais has a reputation which is not always as high as its level. Certain abuses in mediocrity pulled a kind of putting in cupboard which hides unfortunately numerous qualities which we can find in this new wine. Because yes, it is a new wine which it is useless to want to compare with a wine of guard. His assets are somewhere else, his qualities are specific and book every year to amateur his prize of surprised.

Stemming from a small vineyard of 22 000 ha, the new Beaujolais fires every year in 30 million bottles. Native of a calcareous soil, it does not wait for ageing to reach maturity. Immediately converted into wine, immediately bottled, two months are enough for allowing tasting. We so obtain an often-tannic wine. This famous taste of banana (more and more rare) results from dry yeasts allowing acceleration of the process of wine making.

The bad reputation of this wine is demolished since a few years thanks to the quite particular attention which is given to him to make an exception beverage. Now, we find Beaujolais scoops which, raised under a more and more important period of sunshine, offer a fleshy wine, of a very beautiful balance full of multiple aromas.

The short-lived, often festive aspect, confined this particular wine making in the second row, what is being repaired, partially thanks to young producers worried of not tarnishing reputation of vineyards of Beaujolais. Today we want to drink Beaujolais because it is good, and not as the product fashion.

Moreover, he is not compulsory anymore to drink this wine from the moment when he must to be bottled. The specialists claim that he is even better when he is tasted in the spring according to the 3rd Thursday of November. In reality, if the new Beaujolais is not “worked” to be kept for a long time, he can reveal very interesting aspects after several months of wait, until one year.

It is true that media and systems of marketing are focused over a well-defined period, but we have to admit that Beaujolais can find today perfectly its place, sometimes with happiness, during the long months which follow its wine making, the proof with Le Petit Ballon which proposes a delicious Beaujolais “69” 2014.