Beau-jolais!

With yet another harvest season commencing in the vineyards of Europe it's nostalgia time for me, with memories of the last year's harvest   in the picture perfect vineyards of Beaujolais. The region has such cult status that it needs no introduction to true lovers of wine, however,a brief background would definitely be in order to fill the gaps in knowledge, whatsoever, of this famed wine region.

The rolling slopes of Beaujolais with Mont Brouilly in the distance

The name 'Beaujolais' has its genesis in the word Beau (French) +Jugum(Latin)  meaning “Beautiful 
Hill”.  Located towards south of Burgundy in France, Beaujolais is synonymous with mostly  young wines noted for their unmistakable fruity character and low tannins , making them easy drinking and flavourful . Majority of the wine in Beaujolais is made from the red Gamay grape varietal, though there is a miniscule 1% Beaujolais Blanc made from its famous Burgundian cousin- Chardonnay.

The history of Beaujolais is quite interesting as it represents a success story of a grape that was once looked down upon by the people in power. In the 13^th century, the Duke of Burgundy branded Gamay as ‘disloyal and harmful to human beings’  just  to favour  Pinot Noir that was considered the  grape of nobles. This partisan treatment banished Gamay from the Burgundian vineyards until 19^th century post French revolution. Beaujolais however remained resilient and developed Gamay to the extent that Beaujolais Nouveau is now an enviable marketing paradigm, with the wine being released for consumption less than three months from harvest!  For quick details on Beaujolais wines, see snapshot at the end of this post.

I visited Beaujolais when the harvest for the year was about to begin and  the vineyards were flush with berries.  Arriving at Belleville sur Saône which is the nearest railway station 30 minutes by train from the major French city of Lyon I was received by my host  Aurélien Fiardet, Export Manager at Terroirs Originels , a Cooperative with 25 independent estates managed by the winemakers themselves. Without losing time we drove straight to the first of the vineyards situated at Côtes de Brouilly and my harvest experience started pronto! Winemaker after another, the experience went as follows:

Domaine Emmanuel Fellot

Wines : Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais Villages, Beaujolais Blanc and Côtes de Brouilly.

The bonhomie during harvest

This was my first engagement at Côte de Brouilly where I was to participate in the harvest. I was lucky to arrive at the  vineyard when the harvesting team was on a short break with some delectable wines and cured meats including the famous French Saucisson.  Emmanuel introduced me to the team amid the culinary pleasures and thereafter lost no time in handing me over a harvest bucket with a pair of clippers and a seasoned team member  to guide me on picking the right berries. What followed was pure harvest bliss that I had been dreaming -of, in order to qualify myself as having “been there and done that”!

I sampled Emmanuel’s  Vielles Vignes 2006 Beaujolais Villages at the vineyard itself  and found it absolutely delightful with a mouth filling juiciness and flavours of red fruits, flowers and spice.

With Winemaker Emmanuel Fellot

Domaine Robert Perroud

Wines : Brouilly, Côtes de Brouilly and Beaujolais Nouveau

Berries leaving for the winery

One of the founding members of Terroirs Originels who continues to be an active helmsman till date, it was amazing to note how Robert  continued being involved in his estates to the minutest of details and is yet able to fulfil his responsibilities towards the Cooperative to the hilt! I spent the major part of my stay at Beaujolais with Robert- from the harvesting at his Côte de Brouilly estate to accompanying the grape laden trucks to the winery and further-on till the vinification. During the lunch with his team, Robert explained about the varying styles of his wines and how the different terroir across short distances enables him to produce interesting wines with remarkably distinct characteristics. At lunch I sampled all his wines with a delectable yet simple spread . During the lunch, Aurélien’s slip of tongue calling the Tomato Pie as Pizza, was greeted by uproarious laughter by his French mates citing his prolonged American association !

With winemaker Robert Perroud and the harvest team

 

Vignobles Laurent Gauthier

Wines : Morgon, Chirouble, and Beaujolais Villages Rosé

The steep slopes of Côte du Py (Morgon)

Taking a break from Brouilly, my next stop was at the famed Cru of Morgon where Laurent Gauthier lives and deftly manages his estates that date back to 1834. The first on agenda was to visit  his steep vineyards of Côte du Py (Morgon) -  the sheer beauty of which  more than made up for every drop of the harvesting sweat!  We thereafter headed for his tasting room where I could see spools of labels intended for the 2012 harvest. We sampled the 2010 and 2011 vintages, with the flavours ranging from floral and fruity to powerful and racy. His Rosé, described in his words as an “Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove”  courtesy  its sophisticated yet robust character, is  a runaway hit in the US market. Laurent’s love for terroir was clearly reflected in his wines that presented uniquely discernible traits.

Vignobles Lucien Lardy

Wines : Fleurie, Morgon , Moulin-à-Vent and Beaujolais Villages

Wines tasted at vignobles Lucien Lardy

Another founding member of the Terroirs Originels , Lucien Lardy has a diverse portfolio of wines. Monsieur and Madame Lardy accompanied us to their  vineyards at Fleurie and Moulin-à-Vent where I again took charge of a clipping tool and bucket to get up close and personal with the grapes.

The wine portfolio of Lucien Lardy also  includes a Beaujolais Blanc and to my surprise- a Crémant (sparkling) wine made using the Methode Traditionelle (secondary fermentation in bottle). We tasted all of these in his elaborate tasting room and once again, the diversity of wines was well embossed.

This concluded my short but fulfilling experience of harvest and it was time to bid Au Revoir to

My host Aurélien Fiardet
sampling wine at Vignobles Lucien Lardy

Beaujolais. My experience concluded with Aurélien showing me around the massive facility of Georges Dubœuf- the biggest marketer of Beaujolais wines, and a familiar name of the wine world.  Getting dropped by Aurélien  at my hotel in Lyon further afforded me a great view of the countryside abundant with rolling hills canopied by a pristine azure sky. The Beaujolais charm continues to stay with me nonetheless.

And finally- wines of three winemakers  I visited (Emmanuel Fellot, Robert Perroud and Lucien Lardy) have been selected by Jancis Robinson,MW- the demi Goddess of wine world- as the best wines from the region. It thrills me no end to believe that some of the grapes gone into making these may well have passed my hands !

Beaujolais Snapshot

Total Cultivation area : 23000 hectares under two  departments- Rhône-Alps and Saône-et-Loire (Burgundy).

Average Annual Production :  8,25,000 hecto litres (133 million bottles)

Exports : More than 40% exported to around 135 countries

Wine Style : Charecterised by Carbonic Maceration that extracts more fruit flavours and less tannins.

Wine Style	Characteristics
Beaujolais Nouveau	Young and fruity wines best consumed within a year of production
Beaujolais Supérieur	Same as Beaujolais Nouveau but with more alcohol percentage
Beaujolais Villages	Wines produced with grapes produced in better notified areas, closer to the prestigious slopes of Cru Beaujolais.
Cru Beaujolais	10 classified areas that produce complex, variedly styled and and many age worthy wines. These areas are- Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon, Regnié and St-Amour.

This article appeared in Spiritz magazine Sep 13 issue

My French Connection!

Laurent giving me a bird's eye view of St Emilion, Bordeaux-
a UNESCO heritage  town

Meet Laurent Piaton! A forty something quintessential Frenchman who loves his wines in equal measures as his Fourme d’Ambert (one of the oldest French cheeses) ! Laurent & I met a couple of years back at a wine dinner when he was in India to promote his portfolio of wines.  LPVM, his marketing company exports wine to several countries across the globe and this time on, Laurent was on a ground level interaction spree with budding and experienced Indian wine enthusiasts. Being together at the dinner table we hit it off rather well as my curiosity towards French wines was well addressed by his in-depth background and a forthcoming demeanour. After a hearty dinner, we bade an optimistic “Au Revoir” with  an underlying reservation about a future meeting - considering that I was still a serving soldier with just an occasional interaction with the professional wine community.

Laurent and me at a Brasserie in  St Emilion

Fast Forward >> 2011 and my wine pursuits received albatross wings in the form of the Global Champagne scholarship! But would I have returned after the four days sponsored trip at Champagne? Not if I was a true blue wine maniac! So I thought it was worthwhile to contact Laurent to see if he could facilitate my adventure in the wine heartlands of France. Far exceeding my expectations, Laurent replied to my mail along with a proposed itinerary faster than a blink and even offered to accompany me to the wine areas in his stunningly beautiful  Peugeot SUV! My French wine adventure was on!

Destinations Galore in Laurent's Wheels

After the sejour at Champagne, I thus boarded the TGV to Bordeaux and started a further 10 days of hectic visits to wine estates that covered famed vineyards of Bordeaux, Provence, Rhone valley and Beaujolais.  Be it the UNESCO heritage town of St Emilion with its quaint setting, the interiors of Provence where finding an English speaking person was akin to looking for the proverbial needle in the hay stack , the wood fired oven pizza at Chateauneuf du Pape  or the picture perfect rolling vineyards of Beaujolais, it was the realisation of my longstanding dream of working hands-on in the Mecca of wines - all courtesy my French connection a.k.a. Laurent!

Wood Fired oven Pizza at Chateauneuf-du-Pape

There is no option but to describe my experiences individually  in  future blog posts so as to befittingly transmit the intensity of the passionate winemaking I came across at each wine estate. To that effect, I guess it would not be out of place to title these posts in plural as - “My French Connections”- having forged lasting relationships in the deeply passionate  world of wines!

 Laurent however, would always remain that special person who started it all for me.

Pour toutes les choses  vous avez fait pour moi - Je vous remercie Monsieur Piaton!

My French Wine Odyssey

 12 days, 16 wine estates all over France and a kickstart in the form of an all expenses paid trip. Sounds like a dream ? Indeed it was a dream that I realised when I took off for France on a Scholarship trip to the famous Champagne area by virtue of my fanaticism for wine that resulted in the award of a Global Scholarship by Comite Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC)- the apex body of Champagne producers. The Champagne trip was a hectic itinerary of 4 days and the wine freak in me could not just get around the thought of concluding the visit to the Mecca of wine (read France) so soon after having  made all the effort to reach there. Voila! I tapped one of my friends in France linked to the wine trade and fixed up an extended schedule to visit the other famous wine regions in a reasonable time frame- and my French Wine Odyssey was on!

My wine route chart in France worked out as  Champagne-Bordeaux-Provence-Rhone Valley-Beaujolais before returning to Paris for my flight back to India. The 12 days spent undoubtedly were super hectic but of immense value due to the exposure received in all aspects of winemaking from amongst the best and accomplished winemakers in the world. On the sidelines, it also afforded me an opportunity to put into practical use, my whatsoever knowledge of French language!
Having been to all these famous wine areas, I decided to chronicle them in my blog so as to share the experiences and possibly act as a guide to those who would like to proceed on similar sojourns. The blog posts would start in the same sequence as my route chart given above so watch this space for the first sub-post coming up on my Champagne experience in the coming week. I would encourage you to give comments on any queries or observations that you may have or if you would like to interact at an individual level, feel free to mail me at  ravi@ravikjoshi.com .

Au Revoir!