My favorite wine changes all the time, and that is honestly one of my favorite things about wine in general. Your palette changes often and quickly which allows for new exploration and the ability to try very different styles of wine. I've recently been on a massive Beaujolais kick so I thought i'd blog about my "current" favorite wine!
Beaujolais sits just south of the famous Burgundy region and has very similar weather patterns. This is one of the key reasons I love Beaujolais wines, as they have wonderful similarities to the pricey Burgundy wines without having to pay the steep price point. Beaujolais wines are almost always 100% made from the grape variety Gamay. Gamay is a super interesting Pinot-Noir style grape - light in body, jammy red fruit (bubblegum, strawberries, red cherries). What is also great about Beaujolais is that there is a large variety of styles within the region. There are 10 different "Cru" in Beaujolais. Each Cru has a distinctive terroir and taste profile. Cote de Brouilly and Fleurie lend to a lighter style of wine. These wines should be drank young and show bright red fruits. Moulin-a-vent and Morgon on the other hand are a more bolder style of Gamay, leading to wines with the ability to age and lend to a more fuller-body style of wine.
I was lucky enough to visit Beaujolais over the summer and it was truly an eye-opening experience. Each producer was more kind than the next and you can tell that winemakers there have an intense connection with their terroir and the history of their region. The wines are extremely affordable yet manage to still be elegant and complex. I HIGHLY recommend trying these wines if you haven't yet and if you are able to visit it is absolutely once in a lifetime. Chateau Thivin was my favorite visit of the trip, check out their wines!
Dylan
Dylan, I love Beaujolais! So much fun. It always makes me smile to think of it because I took a wine seminar in college and brought up beaujolais to the professor. He crinkled his nose and said, "I don't like the smell of ba-na-nas in my wine." He is a crank because the wine can be delicious.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned drinking Beaujolais young, and I want to add that there's a day every year called "Beaujolais Nouveau Day" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2019/11/21/everything-you-need-to-know-about-beaujolais-nouveau-day/#6fc7be0b24fe), which is always the third Thursday of November. That's the first day you can buy it, and you can't buy a Beaujolais that isn't made that year in France. I'm not sure if the rules are relaxed internationally because I know I've seen Beaujolais on the shelf year-round at Trader Joe's.
That raises some interesting questions about cultural norms vs laws in wine consumption. As with other parts of this business, my guess is that France has laws while the US has guidelines. In France, the government tells you where you can plant what and how prestigious your wine is. In the States, you go by what is going to sell. If someone wants to buy 6-month-old Beaujolais at Trader Joe's, no problem. But it's best to know what you're getting and enjoy it in season.
Cheers!