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MICHAEL:
marks the end of the growing season in Beaujolais
and the beginning
of one of the wine industry's biggest celebrations:
Beaujolais Nouveau.
In a few short weeks,
the grapes have been picked, fermented, bottled,
and shipped across the globe
so we can all taste the first wine of the season.
MAN (shouts): Beaujolais!
These festivities made the region famous
and I'm here to look beyond the hype
and to discover all that Beaujolais has to
♪
There's a breathtaking, timeless beauty
to this region.
Rolling hills, ancient villages,
and a people connected to the land.
We're in the heart of the Beaujolais wine region
of France,
and harvest is well underway.
In a few short weeks
the first wines of the vintage will be finding their way
to wine store shelves across the globe,
but that's only the beginning
of the story that is Beaujolais.
I believe the huge success of Beaujolais Nouveau
may have overshadowed
some of the truly amazing and complex wines
that this region produces.
I love Beaujolais.
They're the consummate bistro wines.
So approachable with a surprising range.
The best vintages can sometimes be mistaken
for a fine Burgundy.
MAN: Beaujolais and Burgundy have very, very tight links.
But the people of Beaujolais
realize that they have a treasure there,
because on the schist and granite type of soil
like the Beaujolais mountains,
you make a fantastic wine.
Today it's one of the best-value purchase,
is the Cru of the Beaujolais
because you get a bottle less than 10 euro.
It's absolutely fantastic.
There's essentially only one grape grown in Beaujolais
and that's Gamay,
an ancient off-shoot of Pinot noir.
As in Burgundy,
Beaujolais relies on the variation of terroir
to give their one grape such a range of style.
Thankfully,
the division of the Beaujolais region
is really easy to understand.
There are basically three levels of quality
based on where the grapes are grown.
The southern-most area, simply called Beaujolais,
is the largest
and where most of the Beaujolais Nouveau comes from.
It is flatter
and the soil is mainly limestone.
These wines are light-bodied and ready to drink.
Further north, there's Beaujolais Village,
the mid-quality level.
The soil here is a mix of limestone and granite,
which gives a wide range of flavours.
Wines from here should be enjoyed
within two to three years of vintage.
The Cru Beaujolais is a pinnacle of Beaujolais wines
and the product of ten distinct appellations.
Beautiful hillsides and rough, stony, granite-based soils.
This is where Gamay really shines,
with wines that combine the luscious fruit
of the basic Beaujolais
with structure, concentration, and complexity.
However,
don't look for the word "Beaujolais" on the labels.
All ten of the Cru wines are named by their appellation.
Each has its own unique character
that comes from the differences in terroir.
But they all share a family resemblance.
There's a growing interest in the wines of Beaujolais.
In particular, from the Cru appellations.
Across the region, it's one grape variety:
Gamay,
and I'm amazed at the range of expressions
from these villages.
JEAN-PIERRE: The Morgon, for example,
is a typical type of complex, round, not-aggressive wine.
We say very often that the Morgon when it ages,
il pinotte.
It means that when you taste a 25, 30-years-old Morgon,
sometimes you think it's a Burgundy wine.
You think it's a Pinot noir.
MAN: Gamay is the varietal of tomorrow.
I think not too much alcohol,
very nice fruit,
relatively easy to drink.
It's a very charming, easy, everyday-life drinking.
MAN: Gamay grape,
it's different than the Pinot.
It has two main qualities.
First quality: generosity.
It's a very generous grape
and like that it can grow on very tough soil
Imagine.
Between limestone, it is a rich soil,
and granite, it is a tough soil, acid-poor.
Second quality is fragility.
Very subtle tannin, fresh fruit,
very precision in the wine,
very delicate wine, very--
But this instrument is like a violin.
One you respect.
The wine is absolutely marvelous.
In most of Burgundy, and much of the world,
vines are planted in rows and trellised on wires
which makes mechanical harvesting possible.
But here in Beaujolais,
vines are predominantly terrained
in the ancient bush or goblet method.
This means that there can be no mechanical harvest.
Every bunch is picked by hand.
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In many ways,
Beaujolais is a wine of the people.
No matter who I'm with, or what we're eating,
I know I'm going to enjoy it.
It's uncomplicated, affordable
and so versatile.
These characteristics come in part
from what happens after the harvest.
Once picked,
grapes are rushed to the crush pad.
Here they are hand-sorted
and put into fermentation tanks.
In Beaujolais,
they often use a wine-making technique
called carbonic maceration.
This helps preserve the fresh and fruity flavours
in the grape
and results in a wine with lower tannin levels.
It's a big part of what makes Beaujolais unique.
So Michael,
since one week,
this is a fermentation, carbonic maceration,
and the product quality of carbonic maceration
is to put the full grapes in the tank.
The whole berries, everything inside.
All the berries.
We dump the stems,
so, in the tank like that,
we can put nine tonnes of grapes,
so imagine with the weight,
the bottom is pressed so we have some free juice.
This free juice begin the fermentation
and we close the tank,
and the carbon dioxide is in the tank.
As you can see, we have the full bunch,
we have the stem on the bunch,
and we have the fermentation inside the berries.
Because of the sealed tank and lack of oxygen,
fermentation starts to take place
within the berries themselves.
This is what gives Beaujolais wines
their distinctive aromas and colour.
Naturally Gamay grapes give us some fruity wines,
but with this process,
we have more and more aromas in the wine.
This name is paradise flavours.
Smell.
It does smell like paradise.
That's beautiful, that's beautiful!
While most wine in Beaujolais is made with this technique,
some of the Cru wines
are made with more conventional methods
that may also include aging in oak.
The final and one of the most critical decisions
is when to bottle the wine.
Georges Duboeuf,
by far the largest producer in the region,
has been making wine here for 50 years.
[speaking French]
Every day of the year,
Georges Duboeuf meets with his son Franc,
and they spend a couple of hours
monitoring and evaluating the progress of their wines.
Their company produces over 30 million bottles annually,
but the wine-making decisions rest in their hands.
For some,
the true measure of a wine's quality
is its ability to grow and evolve as it ages,
increasing in complexity and gaining secondary flavours.
But what is the real aging potential of Beaujolais?
Michael,
we will test Moulin-à-Vent Rochegrès.
Rochegrès is the name of the parcel, 2011.
I will show you the difference
between a young wine and an old wine,
not very old wine in reality.
It's between a teenager and an adult.
A young adult.
Yes.
This wine is Moulin-à-Vent
from a specific parcel.
Its name is Rochegrès.
The main stone in Rochegrès,
it's, you see, a very old pink, grey stone.
And the first wine is 2011.
Very young for me.
It's not finished its teenager phase.
and you see you have the wine with a big structure,
but the harmony is not completely full.
You're right.
A lot of the elements are there
but they're confused.
Yes, it is confused
and it closes very quickly at the end.
You sense that the wine is not--
It's a teenager.
Yes, exactly a teenager.
The second, we are in 2000.
I'm sure this wine can live
maybe 40, 50, 60--
I don't know, but a very, very long time.
And you see immediately the wine is more harmonious.
This is a great example
that demonstrates that Beaujolais are age-worthy.
Yes.
Sometimes people,
when they drink very good Cru Beaujolais,
say, "Ah, it's difficult to recognize Gamay and Pinot."
I have a techniques.
If your glass finish on an aristocratic glass,
a little rigid,
it's a Pinot.
If your glass finish on a smile,
it's a Gamay.
♪
Beaujolais wines in all their expressions
are excellent choices at the table.
The lighter styles can be treated almost as a white wine
while the fuller Cru wines match beautifully
with heartier foods.
One of the things I really like
about the wines of Beaujolais
is they're so versatile.
They have a nice acidity,
fruit-driven tannins that are soft,
and they really bring the wines to life
when you have them with the local cuisine.
Whether it's white-coloured, dark-coloured,
Beaujolais, c'est parfait.
It will fit perfectly.
Both dishes are very different,
with the andouillette, with that wine sauce.
You are with coco vin,
dark Beaujolais wine sauce,
which will go very well with that Moulin-à-Vent.
Obviously the wines of Beaujolais
are great with the local cuisine,
but what about with international foods?
Beaujolais wines fit perfectly well with Asian cuisine,
or cuisine with some spices,
whether they are softer or stronger spices.
The nice soft acidity of Beaujolais wines
would make those spice dishes absolutely taste wonderful.
Santé.
I believe that France's quintessential bistro wine
is poised for resurgence.
The quality is certainly evident in the glass
and the reputation of Beaujolais rises
as consumers discover the value to be found
in this unique part of France.
Beaujolais produces complex, food-friendly,
and age-worthy wines.
I'm convinced
that Cru Beaujolais is one of the best values in French wine.
If you've only ever had Nouveau,
you haven't really tasted Beaujolais.
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