Wine · Regions · Study guide
Beaujolais
A study guide to Beaujolais — Gamay, the ten crus, carbonic maceration, and how Nouveau, Villages, and cru wines differ in the glass.
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.
Part of the France country guide.
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:
| # | Cru | In a line |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Amour | Light, floral, charming — helped by the romantic name |
| 2 | Juliénas | Sturdier, spiced red fruit and peony; ages well |
| 3 | Chénas | The rarest and smallest; floral, a touch woody |
| 4 | Moulin-à-Vent | The king — manganese-rich granite, the most powerful and age-worthy (10–20 years), turning almost Pinot-like with time |
| 5 | Fleurie | The queen — silky, perfumed, floral elegance |
| 6 | Chiroubles | Highest and lightest; violets, best drunk young |
| 7 | Morgon | Robust and dark-cherried; the Côte du Py schist gives structure that evolves ("it morgonne") |
| 8 | Régnié | The youngest cru (promoted 1988); soft, bright redcurrant and raspberry |
| 9 | Brouilly | The largest cru, wrapped around Mont Brouilly; juicy blueberry and cherry |
| 10 | Côte de Brouilly | The blue-granite slopes of the hill itself — more concentrated and mineral than the Brouilly around it |
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
| Country / region | France — granite hills north of Lyon, the southern tail of Burgundy |
| Main grape | Gamay (Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc), ~98% |
| White grape (minor) | Chardonnay (Beaujolais Blanc) |
| Soils | Granite & schist (north / crus); sandstone, clay & limestone (south) |
| Climate | Semi-continental, with warm southern influence |
| Hierarchy | Beaujolais → Beaujolais-Villages → 10 Crus |
| Signature method | Carbonic / semi-carbonic maceration |
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
The method, in depth
Three routes lead out of the same fruit:
- Full carbonic maceration — bunches sealed under CO₂, berries fermenting from the inside. Maximum fruit and aromatics, minimal tannin. This is the Nouveau playbook, and it can be done in a matter of days.
- Semi-carbonic — the default for most Beaujolais. No added CO₂: the bunches' own weight crushes the lowest berries, wild fermentation begins, and the CO₂ it throws off blankets the intact berries above. Part carbonic, part conventional.
- Burgundian / destemmed — the choice of many top cru producers for age-worthy wine. Grapes are (partly) destemmed and given a longer maceration for more structure and tannin, at the cost of some of the exuberant fruit.
The takeaway for tasting: the more carbonic the method, the more it smells of fresh red fruit, banana, and bubblegum; the more Burgundian, the more it behaves like a structured red built to evolve. (For how carbonic maceration fits alongside the rest of red winemaking — extraction, cap management, oak — see the red winemaking guide.)
Beaujolais Nouveau
Beaujolais Nouveau is released on the third Thursday of November, a date fixed by the INAO in 1985, just weeks after harvest. Made with fast, full carbonic maceration, it is meant to be drunk immediately — a joyful, primary, banana-and-cranberry glass, served cool. Le Beaujolais nouveau est arrivé! built a global marketing phenomenon and about a third of the region's output rides on it.
It also did lasting damage: for many drinkers Nouveau is Beaujolais, which buries the fact that the crus are among France's best-value serious reds. Keep the two firmly apart in your head.
Nouveau vs Villages vs Cru — in the glass
| Tier | Weight & tannin | Flavour | Serve at | Drink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nouveau | Featherweight, almost no tannin | Banana, pear drop, fresh grape, cranberry | ~11 °C (well chilled) | Now |
| Beaujolais / Villages | Light–medium | Bright cherry and raspberry | ~13–14 °C | 1–3 years |
| Cru | Medium, real structure | Dark cherry, violet, granite minerality; Pinot-like with age | ~16 °C | 3–10+ years (Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon longest) |
The through-line is Gamay's high acidity and low tannin, which is exactly why even the reds take a light chill and slot in beside so many foods.
Mont Brouilly, up close
The two southern crus tell a neat terroir story. Brouilly, the largest cru, forms a broad ring of vineyards around the base of Mont Brouilly. Côte de Brouilly is the smaller appellation climbing the hill's slopes, on harder blue granite (diorite) — and the extra concentration and mineral edge of the slope wines over the rounder Brouilly below is the clearest "same grape, better site" lesson in the region.
Appellation areas are approximate — simplified from official INAO delimitations.
Côte de Brouilly sits on the higher ground of the hill; Brouilly wraps around it on the flatter land below.
The cru renaissance and the "Gang of Four"
From the 1980s a group of Morgon growers — Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet, mentored by the chemist-vigneron Jules Chauvet and championed by importer Kermit Lynch, who coined the label — pushed back against industrial Nouveau. Old vines, no synthetic chemicals, native yeasts, little or no added sulphur: the "Gang of Four" became the seed of the modern natural-wine movement, and their success reframed cru Beaujolais as serious, ageable, terroir-driven wine.
Food
Gamay's acidity and light tannin make Beaujolais one of the most food-friendly reds there is. Lighter styles love charcuterie, salads, and picnic fare; the crus stand up to roast chicken, pork, mushrooms, and — famously — the Thanksgiving table. Chill everything a little more than you think you should.
Classic exam questions
- What grape is Beaujolais made from? — Gamay (Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc).
- Name the three tiers of the hierarchy. — Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, and the ten Crus.
- What winemaking method gives Beaujolais its bright, low-tannin fruit? — carbonic (usually semi-carbonic) maceration.
- When is Beaujolais Nouveau released? — the third Thursday of November.
- Which cru is the most powerful and age-worthy? — Moulin-à-Vent. The largest? — Brouilly.
- Which cru was the last to be promoted, and when? — Régnié, in 1988.
Fix the grape and the hierarchy, keep Nouveau in its box, and Beaujolais reveals itself as ten granite villages doing serious things with a grape everyone underestimates.