The weeks leading up to the Thursday before Thanksgiving are the spectacle of Beaujolais Nouveau, the annual release made from gamay grapes harvested just a couple of months ago. Do these wines go well with Thanksgiving dinner? As I've written about pretty much every year, no wine really goes well with the beige meal. But it is a happy coincidence for the vignerons of southern Burgundy that the gullible US market celebrates a holiday right when these wines are released. And, like so many media-driven events these days, the bottlings are underwhelming in quality and overblown in hype. But before we throw the baby out with the bathwater...
Beaujolais comes in many forms vastly superior to the the young, mass-produced plonk that typifies nouveau. And these are absolutely worth your exploration.
Your first step above the nouveau fray is a big step in quality without much of a price hike: Beaujolais-Villages, which come from designated higher-ranked villages in the area. The gamay grape is capable of ageing, but the Villages bottlings are usually best within the first few years. Even at this stage, you'll find a wide range of prices and quality. Expect to pay $15-20 for most.
The next echelon takes you into the Crus, or sub-regions, of Beaujolais, of which there are 10. These wines from these Crus can achieve extraordinary heights of sophistication and pleasure delivery. What's even better is their relative affordability. While the pricing of a decade ago is long gone, when many of these wines could be found for well under $20, they remain one of France's underappreciated segments.
In the same way that Burgundy's pinot noir has many different expressions depending on the microclimate in which it's grown, gamay takes on a huge range of styles across the Crus. No point in attempting to describe each, as some rarely make it to the US, but even those that do posses stylistic differences that will have you disbelieving the wines are all made from the same grape.
From north to south, the Crus are:
- St-Amour
- Juliénas
- Chénas
- Moulin-à-Vent
- Fleurie
- Chiroubles
- Morgon
- Régnié
- Brouilly
- Côte de Brouilly
