Beaujolais

Beaujolais is the run of granite hills that spills south from Mâcon toward Lyon — the last stretch of Burgundy before the Rhône takes over. It is the region most people think they already know, usually from a single wine (Nouveau) that they then use to misjudge everything else. One grape, Gamay, covers almost all of it. The interest is in how differently that one grape behaves from the sandy south to the granite crus of the north, and in a fermentation trick that gives the wines their unmistakable bounce.

Get three things straight — the grape, the three-tier hierarchy, and carbonic maceration — and Beaujolais snaps into focus. Not simple. Just generous, and far more serious at the top than its reputation lets on.

The one thing to fix first: one grape, three tiers

Nearly the whole region (around 98% of plantings) is Gamay — properly Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is thin-skinned and low in tannin, with high acidity and bright red-berry fruit. Beaujolais is essentially one long study of what Gamay does on different soils. (A trickle of Chardonnay makes white Beaujolais Blanc, but you can park that for now.)

The hierarchy climbs from the flat south to the hilly north:

• Beaujolais AOC — the broad base, about half of all production. Sandstone and clay in the warmer south (Bas-Beaujolais). Easygoing, immediate; most Nouveau starts here.
• Beaujolais-Villages — a step up: 38 communes across the hillier north, with more granite in the mix.
• The ten Crus — named villages on the granite and schist slopes of the far north. Note the tell: a cru label says only the village name, never the word "Beaujolais." These are the wines that gain structure and can age.

The shorthand: granite north = structure and the crus; softer southern soils = lighter, simpler wine.

Appellation areas are approximate — simplified from official INAO delimitations.

The ten crus form a narrow granite ribbon in the north, running from Saint-Amour at the top down to Brouilly, with Villefranche-sur-Saône (the region's hub) and Mâcon marking the southern and northern gateways.

The ten crus, north to south

This is the part worth knowing cold. They run in a line down the hills:

A memory hook: the two royals — Moulin-à-Vent (king) and Fleurie (queen) — sit in the middle of the run and anchor the rest.

Key facts

See the regional map above for the line of crus from north to south.

Carbonic maceration, briefly

The reason young Beaujolais tastes the way it does is the fermentation. Instead of crushing the grapes first, whole uncrushed bunches go into a sealed tank full of carbon dioxide. Inside each intact berry, fermentation begins without yeast — an intracellular process that produces glycerol, soft colour, and very little tannin, plus the signature esters that read as banana and pear drop. The result is bright, juicy, gulpable wine.

Most Beaujolais is semi-carbonic (the weight of the bunches crushes the bottom layer, and normal yeast fermentation and carbonic maceration run at once). Nouveau leans hardest on this for maximum fruit and speed; serious cru producers often do the opposite — longer macerations, sometimes destemmed and Burgundian — to build wines that age.

In this guide

The full guide below goes deeper into the parts that actually distinguish the wines:

• Carbonic vs semi-carbonic vs Burgundian winemaking, and what each does to the glass
• Beaujolais Nouveau — the release date, the style, and why it isn't the whole region
• Nouveau vs Villages vs Cru — flavour, weight, and serving temperature
• Mont Brouilly up close: Brouilly vs Côte de Brouilly
• The cru renaissance and the "Gang of Four"
• Food pairings and classic exam questions