Beaujolais and Mâconnais: Gamay, the ten crus and southern Burgundy

Map, topography and soils of Beaujolais

The wine region is divided into two parts, as clearly shown by the location of the various appellations. Bas Beaujolais in the south, mainly flat with rich sandstone and clay soils. This is where the infamous Beaujolais Nouveau is produced under the AOC Beaujolais.

In the northern part, roughly oriented around the town of Villefranche, lies most of the Beaujolais-Villages AOC and the Cru Beaujolais AOC. Here the soils consist mainly of schist and granite with some limestone.

Gamay: the grape that had to leave Burgundy

Beaujolais is almost synonymous with Gamay (or, more precisely, Gamay noir à Jus blanc), the region’s most important grape variety. It accounts for 98% of total production.

Now understood to be a cross between Pinot Noir and the ancient white grape Gouais, this variety yields abundant harvests and ripens two weeks earlier than Pinot Noir. This results in fruity wines with low alcohol and tannin levels, high acidity and a light to medium body.

It was a fortunate encounter between Beaujolais and Gamay. The grape variety was poorly treated and banished from Burgundy as early as 1395 to make way for the more famous and valuable Pinot Noir. Pushed southwards, it found in Beaujolais the granite soils and warmer temperatures in which it thrives.

In a famous decree of 1395, the Burgundian ruler banned the cultivation of Gamay on the Côte d’Or, arguing that it was harmful to human health. He described the grape as a “very bad and very disloyal” plant. This displacement actually benefited Gamay, because it thrives even better on the granite slopes of Beaujolais than on the limestone escarpment of the Côte d’Or.

Also worth mentioning is a small production of Chardonnay. Because the north of Beaujolais overlaps with the Mâconnais area of Saint-Véran, it usually comes onto the market under the better-known designations Mâcon-Villages or Saint-Véran.

The ten crus from north to south

Under the AOC Cru Beaujolais there are genuine and still underrated gems of French viticulture, spread across 10 areas (in Beaujolais, the term “cru” refers to an area rather than a single vineyard).

Brouilly, Régnié and Chiroubles produce lighter wines; Côte de Brouilly (the higher slopes of Mont Brouilly with its blue rock of volcanic origin), Fleurie and Saint-Amour yield medium-bodied wines. The other four crus offer full-bodied wines that can be drunk between four and ten years after the harvest: Chénas, Juliénas, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent.

The table arranges the ten crus from Saint-Amour to Brouilly from north to south, focusing on the subsoil.

When buying, work your way from the character column to the soil and area: first determine the style you want, then assess the origin. Vinification is absolutely essential here, as it shapes a cru wine just as much as the cru itself.

From lightly chilled, light wines to somewhat older and more complex ones, Beaujolais is the perfect region for affordable wines of outstanding quality from southern Burgundy.

Juliénas: old Gamay vines and two signatures

Juliénas is one of the most diverse areas of the Beaujolais region. It encompasses slopes of blue stone and schist with little granite in the west, ancient alluvial soils in the east and some sandy soils with a clay content of up to 30 per cent.

A brief insight into the Cru Juliénas from the estates Bret Brothers and Romanesca. For the first version of this text, Jonathan Gobbi tasted two different (yet each exceptionally good) vintages, 2018 and 2020; today we stock the 2020 from Romanesca and the 2022 from Bret Brothers.

Romanesca, Les Fouillouses, Juliénas

The 2018 vintage was very well balanced between a wet winter and a hot, dry summer. Thanks to the good water supply in the first part of the year, the wines were fresh and lively with a slightly lower alcohol level.

The Romanesca “Les Fouillouses” 2018 fully lived up to expectations with a deep ruby-red wine that, after some time, opened up on the nose with fresh notes of sage and orange, followed by blackberry jam, black cherry jam, violet and wild rose. The palate is traversed by a broad acidity that balances the alcohol and tannins well. Notes of blackcurrant, red roses and a hint of vanilla and marzipan on the finish. Available today is the Juliénas “Les Fouillouses” 2020 (€20.50).

Bret Brothers, Climat La Bottière, Juliénas

The 2020 vintage was equally great, but certainly more complicated due to severe frost in April, a very hot July and a rainy second half of August. However, the crus of the region were not as badly affected, and the rain was very welcome as a relief after the hot weather. The result is fresh yet concentrated wines.

The “La Bottière” 2022 from Bret Brothers (€34.50) expresses this idea of concentration wonderfully, beginning with a nose that opens up seductively: sweet cherries, raspberries and richly ripe plums, beneath them floral tones of rose and violet, fresh meadow herbs and a hint of liquorice.

On the palate it is warm and balsamic with a delicate acidity supporting a long, spicy finish. Here we find forest berry jam and black pepper, but also cinnamon, Virginia tobacco, dried plum and coffee. Even now it is incredibly pleasant and seductive. Although it can handle longer bottle ageing, it will be hard to be patient.

Carbonic maceration or Burgundian style?

In carbonic maceration, whole, intact grapes are placed in a closed vessel filled with CO₂. Inside the unbroken berries, an intracellular fermentation begins, producing up to about two per cent alcohol; at the same time, some of the malic acid is broken down and only a small amount of tannin is extracted. The grapes are then pressed and the must completes its fermentation. Banana, bubblegum, cherry and boiled sweets are typical aromas of this method.

In Beaujolais, however, the traditional approach is semi-carbonic maceration: the whole grapes go into the vat without any added CO₂. The weight of the grapes crushes the berries at the bottom; their juice ferments with indigenous yeasts, and the resulting CO₂ displaces the oxygen. Above this, fermentation sets in within the berries, and after about four to ten days they are pressed. For Nouveau, the maceration period is particularly short, with sales beginning on the third Thursday in November.

Burgundian vinification destems the grapes wholly or partially and relies on a longer, classic maceration. Pigeage, punching down the cap of pomace, or remontage, pumping over, bring out more colour, tannin and structure; this also results in greater ageing potential. Many cru winemakers today work with whole bunches and semi-carbonic maceration, others destem and vinify in the Burgundian manner, and many combine both approaches. For the crus, this is no mere technical footnote but a stylistic decision: it helps determine whether the aromas typical of carbonic maceration take centre stage or whether colour, tannin and structure are more pronounced. The method shapes the wine just as much as the cru itself.

Mâconnais: Chardonnay on limestone

The region was recognised as particularly suitable for viticulture even before the arrival of the Romans, but the main impetus came from the monasteries of Tournus and Cluny in the Middle Ages. Under the relative stability of the religious order, the monks were also the first to identify specific crus, which made a systematic categorisation of the parcels possible.

Here, the Chardonnay grape grows on limestone covered with clay or alluvial deposits. The warmer climate compared to the rest of Burgundy suits the white grape perfectly, which accounts for almost 90 per cent of the region’s production. Most white wines are sold under the designation Mâcon Blanc or Bourgogne Blanc. A similar story applies to the few red wines (mainly from Gamay), which are sold under the label Mâcon Rouge or, often when made from Pinot Noir, under the more valuable Bourgogne Rouge. The AOC Mâcon-Villages is theoretically a step up, but to enter the real game we need to look for the name of one of the 27 villages permitted to appear on the label after “Mâcon”, such as Mâcon-Igé, Mâcon-Verzé or Mâcon-Vinzelles, and for the village appellations in their own right: Viré-Clessé, Saint-Véran, Pouilly-Loché and Pouilly-Vinzelles are just some of the names that can guarantee high quality at a good price compared to other areas of Burgundy.

At the very top of the list of villages is undoubtedly Pouilly-Fuissé. An irregular topography, interspersed with limestone-rich hills abundant in alkaline clay. Every vineyard reveals different facets of Chardonnay, with some south-facing sites ripening a full two weeks before the north-facing ones. What all the best Pouilly-Fuissé wines have in common is an abundance and juiciness that can only improve over time.

The appellations at a glance

Pouilly-Fuissé encompasses Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly, Vergisson and Chaintré. On the irregularly shaped, limestone-rich hills there have been 22 Premier Cru climats covering a total of 194 hectares since the 2020 vintage – the very first Premiers Crus of the Mâconnais. This gives the designation an additional layer of provenance, delimited within the appellation itself.

Pouilly-Vinzelles and Pouilly-Loché remain small neighbours of the better-known Pouilly-Fuissé; Viré-Clessé, comprising Viré, Clessé, Laizé and Montbellet, lies to the north and has been independent since the late 1990s.

Saint-Véran has existed since 1971 and is spelt without a “d”, whereas the village is called Saint-Vérand. The communes include Davayé and Prissé; to the south, Chânes, Chasselas, Leynes and Saint-Vérand already lie in the Beaujolais area. Here the regions overlap on the label, while the defining difference remains: Chardonnay and limestone in the Mâconnais, Gamay and predominantly granite in Beaujolais.

Bret Brothers and La Soufrandière: one estate for two regions

The estate that best represents the overlapping geography of the two wine regions is Bret Brothers, also known as La Soufrandière.

Jean-Guillaume and Jean-Philippe Bret are part of the new wave of producers who, under the name La Soufrandière, revived the Côte Mâconnais after the stagnation of the 1980s. With a focus on biodynamic viticulture (Demeter-certified since 2006) and hand-harvesting, La Soufrandière stands for character and identity. Each parcel is harvested and vinified separately in order to reveal the identity of every Climat. Pouilly-Vinzelles Climat Les Quarts or Pouilly-Fuissé Climat Au Vignerais are wonderful starting points for exploring the various facets of this terroir.

But the exploration of the areas south of the Côte d’Or does not end in the Mâconnais. In Beaujolais, the brothers work under the label Bret Brothers and also buy grapes from fellow winemakers who are friends. The same high quality standards as at La Soufrandière are applied here. The Gamay grape is the perfect complement to the Chardonnay in the brothers’ portfolio. Precision and drinkability are obligatory, along with a fine minerality and the absence of any obvious wood flavour. Juliénas Climat La Bottière and Fleurie Climat Poncié are just two examples of the varieties and differences between the individual villages of Beaujolais. And the Bret brothers are definitely the right winemakers to show us these nuances.