Try Beaujolais before you die!
Why? Three words: Yum! Yum! And, Yum! Plus, it’s not that expensive.
Ten Second Summary
- What it is: A light, juicy, gloriously drinkable red wine from just north of Lyon, France, made mainly from the Gamay grape.
- Tastes like: Soft red fruit, cherries, raspberries, violets and sometimes a little bubble gum, pear-drop or banana note from carbonic maceration.
- Buying shortcut: Skip the very cheapest stuff and look for Beaujolais-Villages or, better still, one of the 10 Beaujolais crus — or go straight to the best producers ↓
- Best with: Charcuterie, roast chicken, picnic food, ham, pâté, sausages, pizza, burgers, lighter pasta dishes, and almost anything that benefits from a chilled, juicy red.
- When to drink: Most Beaujolais is best young, fresh and slightly chilled. The best cru Beaujolais, especially Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent, can age beautifully.
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| Chénas vineyards in Beaujolais: Gamay country, cru country, and proof that red wine does not need to be heavy to be serious. Photo © Richard Semik / Adobe Stock. |
What’s on this page
1. Why Beaujolais is bucket list worthy
Well-made Beaujolais is a gorgeous wine. It’s not massively complex, structured, or ageable — an exception being some of the crus. But it is utterly delicious and totally gluggable. It’s an experience you don’t want to miss out on.
Silky, fruity and refreshing, with a lightness of touch that makes it perfect for a lunchtime or picnic wine, Beaujolais is the bottle to reach for when you want a break from those heavier, soupier reds.
This is not a wine that needs ceremony, candles, or a bank loan. Good Beaujolais is immediate pleasure. It lifts the mood. It makes lunch better. It makes a picnic feel like an event. It is red wine with bounce.
And that is why it belongs on a proper bucket list. Not every wine worth drinking before you die needs to be grand, ancient, expensive, and wrapped in tissue paper. Some wines earn their place by being so irresistibly joyful that life would be poorer without them.
2. What Beaujolais is
Beaujolais is a French red wine region just north of Lyon and south of Burgundy’s more famous Côte d’Or. Administratively and wine-commercially, it is often treated as part of greater Burgundy, but in the glass Beaujolais has a very distinct personality.
The grape is Gamay — more properly Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc — and Beaujolais is its spiritual home. Where Pinot Noir often gets the glamour, the auction prices and the hushed reverence, Gamay gets on with the job of being delicious.
That may sound faintly damning, but it is not meant to be. Deliciousness is underrated. There is a lot to be said for a wine that makes you smile before you have started analysing the tannin profile, soil type and percentage of whole bunch.
Most Beaujolais is red, light to medium-bodied, low in tannin and bursting with red fruit. The best examples — especially from the crus — can also be savoury, mineral, floral, age-worthy and quietly serious. Quietly being the important word. Beaujolais is rarely pompous.
3. What Beaujolais tastes like
Made from the Gamay grape variety, most Beaujolais is low in tannin and has an appealing bubble gum, pear-drop, or banana touch to its soft red fruit.
This character is a hallmark of the vinification method known as carbonic maceration, rather than the Gamay grape itself. Carbonic maceration is widely used in Beaujolais and helps highlight the aromatics and fruit while minimising the tannins.
In simple terms, Beaujolais often tastes like cherries, raspberries, strawberries, violets and soft red fruit. It can be silky, juicy and very refreshing. Some wines are pure picnic-blanket joy. Others — especially from places like Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Côte de Brouilly and Chénas — can have more structure, spice, mineral grip and ageing potential.
The best Beaujolais sits in a lovely place between charm and seriousness. It is light enough to drink with lunch, but good enough to make you stop mid-sip and say, “Hang on, this is actually brilliant.”
4. Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages and cru Beaujolais
Broadly speaking, there are three main quality levels of Beaujolais: Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, and the crus — 10 different ones all up.
Quality generally goes up as you move from basic Beaujolais to Beaujolais-Villages to cru Beaujolais. That means the wines tend to have greater depth, concentration and complexity as the source of the grapes moves from higher-yielding, flatter vineyard sites to sunnier, lower-yielding vineyard sites further up the slopes.
Beaujolais
Basic Beaujolais is usually light, fruity, easy-drinking and made to be enjoyed young. It can be simple, but when made well it can also be ridiculously enjoyable. This is the wine for picnics, roast chicken, ham, casual lunches and “I just want something delicious” moments.
Beaujolais-Villages
Beaujolais-Villages is the useful step up. The wines usually have more character and concentration while still being bright, fresh and easy to drink. If you want a reliable buying shortcut, Beaujolais-Villages from a good producer is often a very smart place to start.
Cru Beaujolais
Cru Beaujolais comes from 10 named village appellations in the northern part of the region. These wines usually do not have the word “Beaujolais” prominently on the front label, so you have to be in the know. The reward for being in the know is that you can find some of the best value fine red wine in France.
For more detail, the official Beaujolais wine council has a useful guide to the region’s 12 appellations.
5. The 10 Beaujolais crus
So, what about the crus? The 10 crus are separate areas within the Beaujolais region that produce their own distinct style of Beaujolais. They are usually delineated by their particular soil, topography, or both.
The labels for these wines don’t typically have the word Beaujolais on them, so you have to be in the know. This is one of those irritating wine things that is annoying until you know it, at which point it becomes mildly satisfying.
Here’s a list of the 10 Beaujolais crus in approximate ascending order of body weight — from lighter to fuller bodied:
- Chiroubles — light, pretty, floral and high-toned.
- Saint-Amour — charming, perfumed and, let’s be honest, very useful around Valentine’s Day.
- Fleurie — silky, floral, elegant and often the gateway drug to cru Beaujolais.
- Régnié — bright, fruity, friendly and often good value.
- Brouilly — the largest cru; generous, juicy and easy to like.
- Côte de Brouilly — more mineral, structured and serious than Brouilly.
- Juliénas — spicy, fuller and a little more muscular.
- Chénas — relatively rare, structured and quietly impressive.
- Morgon — deeper, earthier, more structured and famous for ageing well.
- Moulin-à-Vent — the fullest and most powerful cru; sometimes almost Burgundian in seriousness.
I really like the ones at the lighter end of the spectrum, but they can all be delicious. Try a few — you won’t get tired of them.
To help you decide, the good folk at the Beaujolais wine council have developed a nifty tool on their website to help narrow it down based on your preferences. Check it out here.
6. Beaujolais food pairing
Beaujolais food pairing is wonderfully easy because the wine is light, fruity, fresh and low in tannin. It can do things that bigger reds often cannot.
Serve Beaujolais slightly chilled and it becomes one of the great lunch wines. It can behave almost like a red wine substitute for white wine: refreshing, bright, not too heavy, and very happy around food.
The classic match is charcuterie. Ham, saucisson, pâté, terrines, rillettes and cold meats all love Beaujolais. The wine has enough fruit to flatter salty food and enough freshness to keep everything lively.
It is also excellent with roast chicken, turkey, pork, sausages, burgers, mushroom dishes, picnic food, quiche, pizza, lighter pasta dishes, grilled tuna, salmon, and even a slightly chaotic fridge-foraging dinner involving cheese, leftovers and optimism.
This is one of the reasons Beaujolais is so useful. It is not a “special occasion only” wine. It is a “why isn’t Tuesday lunch better?” wine.
7. Ten best Beaujolais producers
The list below is by no means exhaustive, but these are excellent Beaujolais producers to know. Some are icons of the natural wine movement, some are benchmarks for particular crus, and some simply make wines that are dangerously easy to drink.
Click on one of the links below to find a Bucket List worthy Beaujolais near you.
1) Domaine Marcel Lapierre — Morgon
Domaine Marcel Lapierre is one of the essential names in Beaujolais. Based in Morgon, Lapierre helped redefine what Beaujolais could be: pure, expressive, low-intervention, terroir-driven and deeply drinkable.
If your idea of Beaujolais is still cheap, confected, throwaway Nouveau, a good bottle of Lapierre Morgon is an excellent corrective.
2) Jean Foillard — Morgon Côte du Py
Jean Foillard is another Beaujolais legend, especially for Morgon Côte du Py. His wines are perfumed, silky, layered and wonderfully alive. They have that magical Beaujolais combination of effortlessness and depth.
Foillard is a brilliant producer to try if you want to understand why serious wine people keep banging on about Gamay.
3) Jean-Paul Thévenet — Morgon Vieilles Vignes
Jean-Paul Thévenet is part of the famous Beaujolais “Gang of Four” alongside Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard and Guy Breton. The wines are often supple, fragrant and quietly profound.
This is not Beaujolais trying to be big. It is Beaujolais being Beaujolais — which, at its best, is much more interesting.
4) Guy Breton — Morgon
Guy Breton, sometimes known as “P’tit Max,” is another key natural-leaning Beaujolais name. His wines can be joyful, aromatic, fresh and disarmingly easy to drink.
If the point of wine is sometimes to make life feel lighter, Guy Breton is very much on-message.
5) Château Thivin — Côte de Brouilly
Château Thivin is the benchmark name for Côte de Brouilly and one of the great historic estates of Beaujolais. The wines tend to have more structure, mineral bite and savoury depth than the simpler, fruitier end of Beaujolais.
This is a producer to try if you want Beaujolais with a little more backbone, but still plenty of charm.
6) Jean-Paul Brun — Domaine des Terres Dorées
Jean-Paul Brun of Domaine des Terres Dorées is one of the best-known producers in the south of Beaujolais. His wines are often more traditionally vinified and show a different side of the region: pure, bright, precise and very food friendly.
Brun is also a good reminder that not all worthwhile Beaujolais needs to come from the famous crus. Straight Beaujolais from a top producer can be a joy.
7) Jean-Marc Burgaud — Morgon
Jean-Marc Burgaud is a reliable, serious and widely respected Beaujolais producer, especially for Morgon. The wines often have more structure and density than the feather-light end of the region.
If you want to see how Beaujolais can be both drinkable and cellar-worthy, Burgaud is a very smart name to know.
8) Louis-Claude Desvignes — Morgon
Louis-Claude Desvignes is another excellent Morgon producer, known for wines with structure, clarity and ageing potential. This is Beaujolais with seriousness, but not heaviness.
The wines are especially good for people who think they do not like light reds. They may discover they simply have not been drinking the right light reds.
9) Clos de la Roilette — Fleurie
Clos de la Roilette is a beloved Fleurie producer, though the wines are often a little more structured and serious than the word Fleurie might lead you to expect.
This is a lovely producer for showing that Fleurie is not just pretty and floral. It can also have depth, grip and real personality.
10) Yvon Métras — Fleurie
Yvon Métras is one of the more cultish names in Beaujolais. The wines can be hard to find and not always cheap, but they show just how beautiful, aromatic and compelling Gamay can be in the right hands.
Not every bottle of Beaujolais needs to be a cult object. In fact, most should not be. But if you want to see why collectors and sommeliers get excited about the region, Métras is one of the names that explains it.
8. Best Beaujolais FAQ
What is the best Beaujolais?
The best Beaujolais usually comes from one of the 10 crus, especially from top producers such as Marcel Lapierre, Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Thévenet, Guy Breton, Château Thivin, Jean-Paul Brun, Jean-Marc Burgaud, Louis-Claude Desvignes, Clos de la Roilette and Yvon Métras.
Is Beaujolais a good wine?
Yes. Beaujolais can be excellent wine. Basic examples are usually light, fruity and easy-drinking, while the best cru Beaujolais can be complex, age-worthy and among the best value red wines in France.
What does Beaujolais taste like?
Beaujolais usually tastes of cherries, raspberries, strawberries, violets and soft red fruit. Some examples also show bubble gum, pear-drop or banana notes from carbonic maceration. Better cru Beaujolais can add spice, earth, flowers and mineral grip.
Is Beaujolais the same as Pinot Noir?
No. Beaujolais is made mainly from Gamay, not Pinot Noir. Gamay is generally lighter, fruitier and lower in tannin than many Pinot Noirs, although serious cru Beaujolais can appeal strongly to Pinot Noir drinkers.
Is Beaujolais Burgundy?
Beaujolais sits just south of Burgundy’s main wine regions and is often discussed as part of greater Burgundy. But its main red grape is Gamay rather than Pinot Noir, and the wines have a distinct style of their own.
What are the 10 crus of Beaujolais?
The 10 Beaujolais crus are Chiroubles, Saint-Amour, Fleurie, Régnié, Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Juliénas, Chénas, Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent.
Which Beaujolais cru is best?
There is no single best Beaujolais cru. Fleurie and Chiroubles are great for lighter, perfumed wines. Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent are better for fuller, more structured and age-worthy wines. Côte de Brouilly, Chénas and Juliénas sit somewhere in between.
What is the difference between Beaujolais and Beaujolais Nouveau?
Beaujolais Nouveau is a very young wine released soon after harvest. It is light, fruity and made for immediate drinking. Regular Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages and cru Beaujolais can be more serious, more complex and, in the case of the best crus, capable of ageing.
Should Beaujolais be chilled?
Yes, Beaujolais is usually best served slightly chilled. Aim for around 12–15°C for lighter styles and closer to 14–16°C for fuller cru Beaujolais. A short spell in the fridge before serving is often a very good idea.
What food pairs with Beaujolais?
Beaujolais pairs beautifully with charcuterie, ham, pâté, roast chicken, turkey, pork, sausages, burgers, pizza, lighter pasta dishes, mushroom dishes, picnic food and cheese. It is one of the most flexible red wines for casual food.
Does Beaujolais pair with charcuterie?
Yes. Charcuterie is one of the classic Beaujolais food pairings. The wine’s juicy fruit, low tannin and fresh acidity work beautifully with salty meats, pâté, terrines, saucisson and rillettes.
How long does Beaujolais last after opening?
An opened bottle of Beaujolais usually lasts two to three days if resealed and kept in the fridge. Lighter, fruitier styles are best enjoyed quickly, while more structured cru Beaujolais may hold up a little longer.
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