How many appellations in beaujolais

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However, all crus are not equal, and each one has its own quirky personality and style of wines, making exploring the world of cru Beaujolais that much more fun! Which cru is right for you? This guide is a start, but the best — and most delicious — way to find out is to try them all for yourself.

This light, easy-drinking cru is the most northerly of the ten, characterized by soft red fruit. Saint-Amour also produces a more serious style of wine, due to variation in soils, so perhaps its two personalities can instead be thought of as those of a fickle lover. Recommended: Domaine des Billards, Saint-Amour. The wines can have a minerality and fruity notes. Average annual production is 15, hl.

This region sits alongside Saint-Amour, to the west and has hectares of vineyards. The soils are blue stone, granite, slate, clay, sandstone and alluvial stones. The wines can be fuller-bodied than those of its neighbour. Average production: 24, hl.

The soils are of granite, sand and alluvial stones. The grapes can struggle to ripen. Average production: 9, hl. It has hectares of vineyards. This is a very varied region with some flatter land to the south, which produces less complex wines, while some of the best areas can produce excellent, complex wines with lots of ageing potential. The soils are of pink granite and manganese-rich granite. Average production: 26, hl. The bedrock is granite.

Average production: 34, hl. This is the highest cru, situated to the west of Fleurie and has light, sandy soils over pink granite. Grapes can struggle to ripen in a cool year but make charming wines in a warmer vintage. The vineyard area is hectares. Average production: 13, hl. With 1, hectares, this is the second largest cru, after Brouilly.

The soils are alluvial and clay over granite and blue stone. Average production: 51, hl. The soils are clay, granite, blue stone, alluvial sands and limestone. Average production: 56, hl.

This is a smaller area of just hectares to the west. The volcanic slopes of Mount Brouilly produce some very good wines. The soils are andesite granite blue stone and stony.

Average production: 15, hl. Photo credit: JB Laissard. This smaller area of hectares produces wines that lighter and lower in price. The soils are granite, with a surface layer of clay or sand. Average production: 16, hl. The climate is temperate and semi-continental. Summers are warm and in winter snow can fall on the foothills of the Massif Central. INAO rules currently forbid netting of vines, such as is commonplace in Argentina, but producers in both regions are lobbying for it to be allowed.

Rain falls throughout the year and can have a particular impact on yields at the time of flowering and fruit set, as well as close to harvest, when grapes can become diluted or even split, allowing disease to set in. The north known as Haut Beaujolais is a hilly region with a bedrock of granite and schist with some patches of limestone and a sandy topsoil that drains well.

This is very beneficial to Gamay, enabling it to ripen well. The southern part Bas Beaujolais is flatter and has soils of clay, which is slow to warm up and can make it difficult for Gamay to ripen. It buds early so cold weather, frost and winds early in the season can damage the young buds. However, it also ripens early, before autumn rains can cause problems. This is very much the image that many people have of Beaujolais wine — light, easy to drink and easy to forget.

However, with different viticultural and winemaking techniques, a whole other style of wine is being made from this grape. However it is made, a good Beaujolais wine is likely to have aromas of raspberries and cherries, a touch of black pepper and some minerality and be an enjoyable, food-friendly wine.

An extraordinary aspect of a good-quality Gamay wine is that as it evolves over time, it becomes more and more like a Pinot Noir. In fact, producers in some parts of Beaujolais are able to label their white wines Bourgogne Blanc.

There are approved Gamay clones in Beaujolais. However, they are becoming less fashionable and some growers are reverting to massal selection. Traditionally the Gamay grapes were trained into a gobelet free-standing bush form, but as new vineyards are planted, they tend to be trellised and trained using the single guyot format with up to 12 buds.

This has the advantage of placing the clusters of grapes in the optimum position to ensure that the grapes get enough sun exposure to ripen more fully with leaf plucking if necessary.

Single guyot also ensures that each bud has greater likelihood of ripening. As rainfall occurs throughout the year, irrigation is not usually an issue.

In fact, what is really key is that the soils drain well, as vines hate sitting in water. As this is an area with year-round rainfall, all the usual suspects that emerge in damp conditions can make life difficult here, such as powdery mildew, botrytis and grey rot. Growers need to be vigilant and also manage the vine canopy to ensure that the air can flow well through the vines, drying any moisture on the grapes and helping to keep them healthy and disease-free.

Unpredictable weather events like hailstorms or heavy rainfall present challenges and growers have to respond as best they can. Although historical, Beaujolais can be seen as an up-and-coming region where land and grape prices are much more affordable than in other regions.

This is attracting a new generation of young, innovative growers and producers. One particularly noticeable trend is the move towards more sustainable production, with many producers already certified organic or biodynamic and plenty more in the process of conversion.

Row inter-planting, a reduction in the use of chemicals and an emphasis on soil health and biodiversity are among the techniques being espoused. These days there are many different styles of Beaujolais red wine being made, as the new generation of winemakers experiments with different techniques. Carbonic maceration process. Photo provided by Westbury Communications.

Beaujolais, like many French regions, ranks its vineyard sites. Ordinary vineyards can produce simple "Beaujolais," while vineyards in higher-ranked villages can label their wines "Beaujolais-Villages. Best of all, the vineyards in the 10 Beaujolais Crus can label their wines with the Cru name only so, "Morgon," rather than "Beaujolais". These wines represent the best of the Beaujolais: serious, delicious, and often age-worthy wines.

Each one has its own personality, its own charms. And one of the greatest pleasures in wine is working your way through the region, exploring each of them in turn. This post is just a quick introduction and round-up of the 10 Crus of Beaujolais.

Throughout this post, we've linked to our more detailed blog posts on each Cru. But for now we hope this helps you on your exploration through the wonderful world of the 10 Crus of Beaujolais. This is considered the sturdiest, most tannic, longest-lived among the 10 Crus of Beaujolais.

But remember, we are still talking about Gamay. It has a firm minerality , thanks chiefly to its granitic soils, and a fruit profile that shades towards orange. But, the chief advantage of Morgon is that it is blessed with an extraordinarily range of excellent producers.

All of these producers are excellent, and you should stock up whenever you see them available. Another legendary producer is Chamonard.