If there’s one wine region that is putting a collective smile on the face of winemakers, importers, merchants, sommeliers, wine bar staff and consumers around the world right now it is Beaujolais. What a moment it is having. And as the final stop in our big January tour through Piedmont, Tuscany, Bordeaux and Burgundy, the team arrived full of enthusiasm and anticipation as we prepared to taste a mix of 2017 and 2018 Beaujolais wines.
Throughout the rolling hills are a network of experienced, sometimes legendary winegrowers. But the region is teeming with energy and has also attracted an army of talented and ambitious younger winemakers keen to explore its beautifully diverse potential.
New Beaujolais winemakers
These newer arrivals don’t have the means to purchase or connections to access great sites and parcels of grapes in neighboring areas like Burgundy and the Northern Rhône and have settled in Beaujolais, where they do have access to some of the best sites and parcels.
Collectively they are rallying towards a style of farming and winemaking that is focused on soil health, diversity and life in the vineyard and minimal intervention in the winery. The gamay grape is reveling in all this and the more than 400 wines we tasted really instilled an impression of exuberant drinkability, vitality and terroir-driven style. The region is on a roll.
As we alluded to in our report a year ago, the 2017 vintage has been much anticipated, even on the heels of the highly regarded 2016. “For me it is a vintage between 2015 and 2016,” according to one of the new stars of the region, Sébastian Congretel of L’Epicurieux. “2015 was almost like a Rhône wine and 2016 was more juicy and soft, but 2017 has good tannin and ripeness combined with good concentration.”
We also tasted some 2018 wines in both bottle and cask, a vintage that has received positive comments as well. “For winegrowers like me a good year is when you actually make wine and the quality and quantity is good in 2018,” said Jean-Louis Dutraive, a legend of Beaujolais whose Domaine de la Grand’Cour is a reference for wine growing and quality in Fleurie and beyond. “It is a year with sun but little of the hydric stress we saw in some parcels in 2017. I think a lot of rain in June 2018 must have been the key,” he added, clearly relieved to have some volume in the cellar from the 2018 harvest.
2017 Beaujolais stylistic diversity
From a winemaking point of view, the region offers incredible stylistic diversity despite the fact that groups of winemakers are often tightly aligned philosophically. And while some wines are more structured and carry more extract than others, these are all wines that offer immediate, rewarding drinking on release.
The range of styles of the wines at the top of our ratings this year really reflect the diversity of the region’s terroirs and the strength, quality and diversity of the winemaking. The 2017 Yohan Lardy Moulin-à-Vent Vieilles Vignes de 1903 is a wildly detailed and impressively articulated wine that is full of interest and energy. It exudes opulence on the finish in an almost reticently soulful, old-vine mode.
The Michel Guignier Morgon Canon 2017 delivers a more brash, more saturated and darker fruited impression with a palate that marries a super juicy edge with fine yet assertive acidity and a long, richly fruited finish. It is powerful yet thrillingly seductive.
Château Thivin Côte-de-Brouilly Cuvée Zaccharie 2017 is a more structured example and shows how oak can be deployed to heighten great Beaujolais. The oak is seamlessly interwoven with concentrated black cherries and plenty of the characteristic acidity of the vintage, all of which drives a seemingly endless finish. This wine is certainly going to repay cellaring.
Newer to the region’s winemaker ranks, Antoine Sunier’s Morgon 2017 offers a plush array of ripe fruit in the strawberry and cherry zone, smoothly delivered on a bed of very fine, ripe and flavor-soaked tannins. It really is a beautifully conceived wine.
2017 Beaujolais will reward cellaring, but why wait?
The 2017 Morgon Montchoisy from Jean-Claude Debeaune really takes the appellation to another level again. Super dark fruits are wrapped in dark chocolate-like flavors and carried on long velvety tannins. There’s a level of structure and saturated fruit flavor here normally associated with celebrated Rhône appellations such as Cornas. It is a must-try wine and completely enthralling.
But while the best cru Beaujolais are capable of improving in bottle, with such a run of good vintages and an ever-improving army of growers and makers assembling throughout the region, there is also no need to wait. Choose your wines to cellar and drink the rest of these excellent 2017 wines with gusto. They really are so good. — Nick Stock, Senior Editor
