Beaujolais: World’s Finest-Worth Reds?
JamesSuckling.com senior editor Stuart Pigott didn’t expect amazing things during his tasting trip to Beaujolais this year – until he uncovered some exceptional releases from the 2021 vintage.
When at the end of February I set off on my first tasting trip to Beaujolais in four years, I didn’t expect amazing things. That was no prejudice against the region – I love good and great Beaujolais – rather,
it was the result of tasting my way through two pallets of Beaujolais samples at home before I left, predominantly from the new vintage in bottle, 2021.
Don’t get me wrong, there were many good 2021 wines and a few very good ones on those two pallets, but often the most exciting Beaujolais I tasted were late releases from 2020 or 2019. Those were both warm and sunny years of the kind that gave the great Beaujolais wines of the past, in legendary vintages such as 1959 and 1976.
The 2021 growing season was almost the opposite of 2020, with an early summer cool and very wet. The weather turned in mid-July when a blast of summer heat arrived, but moist weather returned around harvest time. The wine-growing textbooks tell you this leads to rot and often it did: first downy mildew, then powdery mildew and eventually, as harvest approached, botrytis.
No wonder some producers hurried to bring in the grapes before they rotted, but the results of that low-risk strategy are often pale, light-bodied and on the acidic side. Occasionally those wines are thin and tart.
Then, on my first day in Beaujolais I tasted the 2021s at Domaine Jean-Marc Burgaud in Morgon and was stunned by their depth of colour, ripe aromas and fine tannins. “Personally, I prefer the 2021s to the 2020s, because of their freshness,” Burgaud told me – and he made some exceptional 2020s.
If you doubt me, then try the Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte de Py 2021. It has all the things I look for in top Beaujolais – great fruit, concentration, vibrancy and minerality – and with this combination of depth and balance it should age magnificently. Better still, there’s a good quantity of it, because Burgaud owns six hectares in the famous Côte de Py site.
Then, I ran into the 2021s from Yohan Lardy in Moulin-a-Vent. They showed that exceptional-quality Beaujolais in this vintage was neither a fluke nor something specific to Morgon, the leader of the pack of Beaujolais’ nine crus (de facto village appellations). The Yohan Lardy Moulin-à-Vent Vieilles Vignes de 1903 2021 is a spectacular wine that shows what the new top producers of Beaujolais are striving for. This masterpiece from vines planted in 1903 has the energy of starburst and the purity of a mountain stream.
Anita Neveu of Domaine Anita in nearby Chenas described her struggle to cope with the conditions more drastically, likening the summer of 2021 to “a boxing match with the rain”.
When I got to the Domaine Anita Moulin-à-Vent Coeur de Vigneronne 2021, it couldn’t have been any better. The breathtaking interplay of mineral freshness, a small ocean of berry fruit and super-fine-tannins make this the first perfect Beaujolais we’ve ever encountered.
Back in January 2019, when I first tasted Beaujolais for JamesSuckling.com, it became clear to me that this region is as dynamic as it’s beautiful. Wine prices are also much more friendly than the Rhône to the south, never mind Burgundy to the north, where wine prices are completely out of control.
Clearly, top Beaujolais is excellent value for money, but after my recent tour of the region I think you have to go further and ask if these aren’t the best-value reds in the whole world of wine.
WineSearcher.com says that Domaine Anita’s 100-point wine will retail for under US$30 when it reaches the market, which will be very soon. That makes it a truly astounding bargain. The only problem will be getting to it before everyone else does. And don’t worry if you’re unlucky with this wine, because many other bottles rated 95-plus will be much easier to buy at prices in the $20 to $30 range.
The reason for this absurd situation is the long shadow of Beaujolais Nouveau, the light fruity red from the region, the autumn release of which just weeks after the harvest was one of the first global wine phenomena. The release date of one minute past midnight on the third Thursday of November – just in time for Thanksgiving – was fixed in 1985, and it was after this that Beaujolais Nouveau became huge. However, the mighty bubble burst at the last turn of the century.
My experience is that some bottlings of Beaujolais Nouveau are a bit rough, but others are light, fruity and charming. Although we see no point in tasting it, we’ve got nothing against the stuff. However, Nouveau persuaded consumers right around Planet Wine that Beaujolais is always light, smells of bubblegum and must be drunk young. Even a quick glance at the notes below will show this is not the case.
After tasting the young wines at Dominique Piron in Morgon, including some very promising cask samples from the 2022 vintage, company president Julien Revillon opened a bottle of 1990 Morgon for me. It was still good to drink at well over 30 years of age.
I think the enormous scale that the Nouveau phenomenon reached in the late 20th century also made some wine drinkers think that Beaujolais is an industrial product. In fact, the mix of big negociants, medium-sized companies and many small family-owned domaines is rather like that in Burgundy.
The Way of the Wine Cult
In most markets, Beaujolais lacks the kind of sommelier and collector lobby that Burgundy has in spades. But that may be about to change. Certainly, there’s no shortage of potential heroes in the form of talented and innovative winemakers, and that’s the raw material from which wine cults are built.
J.B. Bachevillier in Blace only has vineyards in Beaujolais Villages, the second-most humble appellation in the region, yet he makes stunning wines. Mee Godard in Morgon is French but has Korean roots and is already one of the leading Morgon producers. Then there’s Guillaume Goujon of Domaine Dupre Goujon, who’s reinventing the wines of his home cru, Côte de Brouilly.
Lastly, there are moves to introduce a series of single-vineyard Premier Cru appellations like those of Burgundy. Many applications for Premier Cru status are in preparation and it’s too early to say when France’s National Institute for Origin and Quality will recognise the first of them.
Top 5 Beaujolais Wines
DOMAINE ANITA MOULIN-À-VENT COEUR DE VIGNERONNE 2021
On the palate there’s a breathtaking interplay of mineral freshness with a small ocean of berry fruit and super-fine tannins. An endless finish that’s so complex and vibrant it makes you glad to be alive.
CHÂTEAU DES BACHELARDS – COMTESSE DE VAZEILLES FLEURIE LE CLOS DES BACHELARDS 2020
A giant of elegance, energy and finesse, this single-vineyard Fleurie is one of the wines of the vintage in Beaujolais. Staggering concentration on the tightly packed medium- to full-bodied palate, which is extraordinarily cool and precise for the very warm vintage.
DOMAINE ANITA MOULIN-À-VENT LA ROCHELLE 2021
Tasting this feels like standing on a beach, then being hit by a giant wave and carried away, but in the most delightful way. From 40-to-50-year-old vines in weathered granite.
YOHAN LARDY MOULIN-À-VENT VIEILLES VIGNES DE 1903 2018
Unbelievably ripe mulberry nose, but so bright and precise. Then comes the enormously concentrated palate, which is very plush yet also so pristine and precise.
CHÂTEAU DES BACHELARDS – COMTESSE DE VAZEILLES FLEURIE 2020
The delicate interplay of dark (structure) and light (red fruit and floral aromas) in the nose and on the extremely focused palate is fascinating, and has a stunning combination of finesse and density.
Source: Prestige Online