Thursday the 21^st 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 7^th November 2024:

  Read more..

The 14th edition of the International Gamay Competition took place at the Cité Internationale de Lyon last Saturday – the 13^th of January.

Over 800 wines from 4 countries; France, Switzerland, Italy & Brazil were tasted by a jury of 181 ‘professional wine tasters and informed amateurs‘ who awarded 267 medals including 164 Gold and 103 Silver. So 20% of the wines received a gold medal – which sounds a little high.

That said, my experience of winners has been positive (though I visited only one winner!) – and his Beaujolais wines have always been delicious – David Béroujon – pictured, right, with his trophy.

From the 164 gold medals there was an additional ‘taste-off’ which was won by an old vines Moulin à Vent by Domaine du Colonat who are based in Villié-Morgon. An address to add to my list 🙂

The runner up wine came from Switzerland: AOC Coteau de Peissy, Domaine des Charmes, Le Baron Rouge Vieilles Vignes 1er cru 2022. Now that really is a mouthful !!

So – how important is Beaujolais Nouveau today?

It may surprise you to learn that in 2022, nearly a quarter of all Beaujolais’ 13,500 hectares of production, ended up in bottles that were labelled Nouveau.

That was 16,500,000 bottles of Nouveau – and that’s a lot – it’s equivalent to 85% of all the production of the Burgundy region from Chablis to the ‘border’ with Beaujolais!

France takes 60% of the bottles but the classic markets of Japan, the US and the UK, together, still bought more than 4 million bottles last year.

That being the case, it’s still worth trying to find some good ones!

The 2023 vintage:

The vine-growth in 2023 started in the ‘new classic’ style – ie quite early and in good conditions due to a mild start to the year. This year, there was hardly any worry about frost and there followed practically ideal conditions for flowering. This early debut of growth, followed by the summer heat, ensured that it was another earlier harvesting year – from about the 1st September – so, versus 2021, we certainly had the potential for nearly an extra month of elevage before any Nouveau bottling got underway – but how, exactly, did the post-flowering year go?

In 2023, the Beaujolais vigneron(ne)s liked to talk about the weather; there’s nothing unusual about ‘farmers’ talking about the weather, right? Of course not! But, as we approached the harvest, there was a clear focus to most of these conversations – and that focus was the rain – or rather the lack of rain.

The crus in the north got a couple of decent rainfalls in July/August but to the south not – here it stayed dry from mid-June right up to the harvest – in fact the further south you went in Beaujolais, the drier it got, reducing the berry size and therefore the yields – unsurprisingly, it was the young vines that particularly suffered in these conditions. The producers point to the counter-balance of the daytime heat with cooler nights – ‘so the wines have a nice aromatic balance – not too warm!‘

Proportionately, Beaujolais Nouveau is made in higher quantities from vines in the appellations of Beaujolais and Beaujolais Villages as these labels are a little less attractive to Beaujolais buyers than those wines labelled in the name of ‘the crus’ – such as Fleurie or Saint Amour. So it is the wines from the south, whose volumes were most severely limited by the summer drought, who provide the bulk of the juice for these Nouveaux – it was an important point for this tasting.

The best wines…

In the the heartland of Beaujolais Nouveau production – ie the south of Beaujolais – the, drought-related, brake on the potential harvest volume has clearly been of benefit for anyone with an interest in drinking this stuff. That’s because any excess volume usually translates into significant quality variation between those who cropped at the maximum and those who were more modest.

2023’s more modest harvest volumes have brought some consistency to the wines – a little like in 2022. The Beaujolais Nouveaux are less regular than the Beaujolais Villages Nouveaux but as in most years the latter category come with not just more depth of flavour – they come with more structure too – and in many cases I’d be looking to keep, and drink, the villages over a longer period than the campaign for Nouveau might suggest.

I have noted a few more great wines (below) than in 2022 but overall, it’s quite a similar number for 97 wines tasted this year.

97 wines tasted – is that a lot? There are probably more like 200-250 different bottlings and/or cuvée names in this category – and good luck to you if you can find some of them in your local markets. I really struggle in Switzerland – and the anonymous (single!) bottling of Switzerland’s Coop supermarket is, historically, an awful one – but I’ll try it again this year – hopefully without needing to pour (more than!) half of the bottle away!

Good hunting!
All 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:

5 Great wines for their labels
One more than last year:
Jean Loron, Beaujolais Nouveau Rosé
Agamy, Domaine de Solémy Beaujolais Nouveau
Manoir du Carra Famille Sambardier, Dame Nature Beaujolais Villages
Famille Descombe, Granite Beaujolais Villages
Richard Rottiers Beaujolais Villages

10 Excellent Wines – Beaujolais Nouveau
Two less than in 2022:
Jean Loron, Rift 69
Romy, Le Mouflet
Georges Duboeuf
Jean-Yves Sonnery Domaine de Baluce
Domaine des Prévelières
Domaine Pierre André Dumas
Aurélie et Fabien Romany
Domaine des Prévelières, Border’Wine
Baptiste Aufranc
Célia et David Large, Zombi

9 Excellent Wines – Beaujolais Villages Nouveau
Just one more than in 2022:
Domaine Gaget, Vinum Memoria
Georges Duboeuf
Domaine de la Madone Bérerd Père et Fils
Nicolas Boudeau
Domaine des Terres Vivantes, La Lutine
Cave Vignerons de Bel Air, Natural
Château de Corcelles
Domaine Desprès
Julien Aucagne

Click on ‘Read More…’ below to see the full notes for the (almost) 100 wines in the order that they were (blind) tasted on Halloween 2023:

  Read more..