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Beaujolais is back
Australian wines have fallen out of favour and Beaujolais is enjoying something of a revival
IS it time for a jolly with the wines of Beaujolais? For most of the second half of the last century, at this time of the year, a wine phenomenon occurred.
The clocks went back, evening became night and the weather invariably took a turn for the worst. The long English winter was upon us and for most Londoners the next fun stop on the calendar was Christmas. But for wine drinkers the fun time was about to begin.
Soon the windows of licensed restaurants and wine retailers would display the legend, Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé. Across the planet the same sign would appear – for a few weeks in November, Beaujolais became the world’s favourite drink.
Then in the 1990s the world’s love affair with this fruity easy drinking wine turned sour. Price hikes and a cynical rush to expand production at the expense of quality caused consumer disillusionment. A new generation of Australian wine-makers offered well-made, cheaper wines which promised a new generation of young wine drinkers, fun, all the year round – sales of Beaujolais wines slumped.
But what goes around comes around – Australian wines are in crisis and Beaujolais is back. Last week, some of the regions top producers and wholesalers, backed by marketing gurus and wine celebs took over the tasting theatre at the London Wine Show.
Beaujolais, they said, had taken a long hard look at its vine growing and wine making methods and made adjustments to improve quality and please the modern market.
Beaujolais is legally a sub region of Burgundy and the contents of the bottle are strictly controlled. There are no Beaujolais-style Cabernet, Syrah or Sauvignon wines – although there is a Chardonnay, but produced in such tiny quanties that it is rarely seen outside the region.
The wine of Beaujolais is bright red and produced from the Gamay grape – a variety that was until the 14th century the main grape of the entire Burgundy region.
Hand-picked grapes are fermented whole with minimal intervention by the carbonic maceration method. The wine is low in tannins and is light, fruity and easy to drink.
Every November within a few weeks of the grapes being harvested about half are subjected to a fast track production method and released as Beaujolais Nouveau.
The remaining wine is divided into groups based on soil type. The largest, simply labelled Beaujolais is the cheapest, but it is often worth paying a little extra for a Beaujolais Villages, from a smaller area in the northwest of the region.
Lastly are the special wines, called crus, from small precise areas and subject to strict growing and production controls. There are ten in total – each one named after a local village – of which, the best known and most widely available in this country are, Fleurie and the more substantial Brouilly.
• What a difference a year makes. The first few editions of this column written September 2005, highlighted the creeping industrialisation of the wine-making process and the growing domination of large corporations in its manufacture and supply. An unholy axis – supermarkets and giant manufacturing companies, aided by sycophantic wine writers – was undermining the UK wine market, we declared.
New World wine, particularly Australian was spearheading an unprecedented assault on the traditional wine industry.
Recently this conspiracy has started to disintegrate. Drinks conglomerate Pernod Ricard has accused the supermarkets of destabilising the market, by hyping the normal selling price of promotional wines and then discounting the product.
Now, Dan Jago, Tescos, head of Beers, Wines and Spirits has hit back.
“The wine industry”, he said, “was uncreative, slow to learn and was failing to talk to consumers in a language they understand.”
But the biggest surprise this year is the fall from grace of Australian wines and the return to favour of the French.
We bumped into wine expert, TV star and prolific book writer, Oz Clarke twice this week. First, in the Imagination Gallery building off Tottenham Court Road and later at the Wine Show in Islington.
On both occasions he waxed lyrical on French wines.
“They have flavour and character,” he opined,“and offer a desperately needed alternative to the bland, sweetish, over processed, big brand Australian and American wines that dominate to-days market.”
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