Thursday the 21st November 2024 will be Beaujolais Nouveaux day - so how about a few stats to get us going? The area under vine continues to decrease in Beaujolais - in 2023 it was just 12,067 hectares - compared to 13,500 hectares in 2022. 15.5 million bottles of Nouveaux were produced in 2023 versus 16.5 million in 2022 - but this year, the smaller area under vines is not the underlying theme. For 2024, the volume is considerably less and we can simply point to the weather. Like the rest of greater Burgundy in 2024, and France in general, there was frost in places, not the best flowering, and interminable rain - consequently the development of mildew. The crus of northern Beaujolais were largely spared the worst of the weather conditions - occasional hail excepted - but most of Nouveau comes from further south - in the Beaujolais and Beaujolais villages areas. It's a big area so some parts fared better than others but many producers made only a quarter of their normal yields - or even less. In 2023 France took two-thirds of the bottles but the classic markets of Japan, the US and the UK, together, still bought 3.9 million bottles (versus 4 million bottles in 2022) out of the total of 5.7 million that were exported. Oh, and 4% of that is white or rosé today! And how is this Nouveaux vintage? I'll keep my comments strictly on 2024 Nouveaux: Historically - and I've been making this tasting since the 2017 vintage - I've seen much more consistent quality in smaller volume vintages than I have in 'normal or generous' vintages. It seems that many domaines like to play with yield elasticity in more generous vintages - so it's quite easy to find lighter, less interesting wines. 2024 is certainly a smaller volume vintage, so that means the average is quite consistent then(?) Sadly no. From the 119 wines from 2024 that I tasted, I found great wines (for the label) to be very rare birds indeed, though wines that spanned the range of quality from very good to excellent, fortunately, cropped up from time to time - ie wines where I would be happy to drink at least a glass, or even multiple glasses. It was clear that there was more consistent quality to be found in the Beaujolais Villages than the Beaujolais. Beaujolais is the first step of quality, with Beaujolais Villages coming from 'more gifted' sites. This year, chance played a wicked game with me; the first wine I tasted was super (I wrote 'benchmark') but quite a few of those that followed were at a much lower quality level. Tasting life was 'easier' with the Beaujolais Villages in that the average quality was higher and also more consistent - but, unfortunately, at the expense of drinkablity. What do I mean by that? The Beaujolais Villages wines are more structural and tannic - they are more concentrated too. Most of them will start drinking well in the Springtime of 2025 - but on the 21st November? Beaujolais Nouveaux day? - not so much. Did I ever say that I struggle with the concept of Beaujolais Villages Nouveaux? At least in terms of drinking them on the third Thursday of November :) Good hunting! All of the wines were tasted and selected blind. It was only after the tasting that I got a copy of the spreadsheet with the names to match to the numbered bottles: Great wines for their labels Clearly fewer than last year: Mommessin Domaine des Marrans Famille Girin Domaine JP Rivière Excellent Wines - Beaujolais Nouveau P. Ferraud et Fils, Rosé Domaine des Ronze, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes Club des Sommeliers, GVS Antoine Viland Maison Loron, Les Repentis Vignerons des Pierres Dorées, La Rose Pourpre Château de l'Eclair Excellent Wines - Beaujolais Villages Nouveau Domaine Depardon, Cuvée Préstige Maison Thorin Julien Aucagne Jean-Marc Lafont Agamy, Cuvée Bernard Pivot Domaine Monts D'argent, Lantigné Domaine Joncy Richard Rottiers Jérôme Lacondemine, Cœur de Raisin Georges Duboeuf The savoury/beer flavours and/or aromas – which I associate with low slufur wines that have been open a few hours – or wines in fridge that have been open more than 24 hours – are very common in the flavours this year. I know that some people like beer – but it’s not my thing, plus I’ve never noted as much in previous tastings. Click on 'Read More...' below to see the full notes for the 119 wines in the order that they were (blind) tasted on Thursday 7th November 2024:   Read More