Beaujolais

Beaujolais is a French appellation d'origine controlee (or AOC). An AOC is the system the French use as a way of geographically designating the origin of a wine. The area known as Beaujolais is located in eastern France just north of the city of Lyon, and overlaps the appellations of Burgundy and the Rhône, to the North and South respectively.

The two main regional Beaujolais appellations, called simply Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages, account for most of the production of the region. Up to one-third of the wine made in these two appellations is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau which is released to the public on the third Thursday in November every year as the first wine of the vintage.

There are ten Beaujolais “crus” as they are called, where the best wines are produced. They are in alphabetical order: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Cote de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin à Vent, Régnié and Saint Amour.

The red grape varietal Gamay, or as it is known locally in Beaujolais “Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc”, accounts for about 98 percent of the wine production in the region. Any white wines produced here are called “Beaujolais Blanc” and are usually made from the Chardonnay grape. In rare instances rosé wine is also produced from Gamay grapes.