A Burgundian Invasion

When I visited Beaujolais, nearly 25 years ago, it was a profoundly rural wine region. Despite its proximity to the polished accomplishments of the Côte d’Or (Beaune is only an hour’s drive north from the cru vineyards) and the urban bustle of Lyon, France’s second-largest city (an hour’s drive to the south) Beaujolais felt isolated, a wine region apart. Most of the region’s producers had grown up in Beaujolais and few had travelled widely. They knew their own wines and those of their neighbours, but the wider currents of the wine world swept and swirled past them.

Back then, there were few outsiders in the region. There were exceptions, of course, most notably Maison Louis Jadot, whose investment in the Château des Jacques in the mid-90s led to the property becoming one of the standard bearers for quality production in a sea of high-volume mediocrity.

Over the course of the past couple of decades, though, Beaujolais has seen many changes. Not least of these is its transformation from being a region best known for its production of cheap, instantly forgettable glugging wines to one that is increasingly recognised as a source of high-quality wines at prices that remain resolutely affordable. This change in Beaujolais’s fortunes can be ascribed to the interaction of many different factors, but one key element has been increased investment in the region by outsiders.

It should, perhaps, not come as a huge surprise that the charge has largely been led by the Burgundians, given both the geographical proximity and the historical ties that link the two regions.

Burgundian investment in Beaujolais is not a novelty. Beaujolais’s two largest négociants – Duboeuf and Mommessin – both have roots in the Mâconnais, whose southernmost vineyards abut the Beaujolais crus. But recent investments have been on a smaller scale and with the aim of producing high-quality wines rather than with an eye to high volumes and modest prices.

Indeed, so many Burgundians have invested in the cru of Moulin-à-Vent in recent years that fully a third of its production is now in the hands of producers whose roots lie to the north. The attraction of Beaujolais for these newcomers to the region (not all of whom come from Burgundy) is as varied and individual as the wines they make.

Thibault Liger-Belair fell in love with the region when he was a student in nearby Belleville, and his initial investment in three hectares of vineyards in 2008 was, in part at least, a sentimental one. But he also relishes the freedom afforded to him by his 12 hectares of Moulin-à-Vent, saying that making these wines allows him to experiment in a way that would be impossible in his prestigious Burgundian vineyards. For Chablis-born Richard Rottiers, though, Beaujolais allows him to produce red wines as a counterpoint to the whites he still makes for his family’s domaine.

One suspects that the main attraction of Beaujolais for many Burgundians may well be that the region affords them the opportunity to produce wines that neatly fill a price gap left vacant by the upward spiral of prices for even the most basic of Bourgogne Rouges. Few of them will admit this publicly, with the exception of Australian-born micro-négociant Jane Eyre, who recently took up a role as head winemaker at Burgundy’s Comte Armand. In addition to producing her own range of Pinots, Eyre is more than happy to admit that great value for money is exactly why she began making Fleurie in 2016, saying that purchasing grapes from a high-quality cru at a similar price to entry-level Bourgogne Rouge was a no-brainer as far as she was concerned.

Fleurie is also the focus of operations for Volnay’s Domaine Lafarge, who have a property there and bottle under the Lafarge-Vial label, a nod to the fact that investment in the region was largely inspired by the fact that Chantal Lafarge (whose maiden name was Vial) grew up not too far away. Kinship ties and happy childhood memories are also at the heart of the Graillot family’s investment in the Domaine de Fa (proving, perhaps, that it’s not just Burgundians that have a soft spot for Beaujolais), and the purchase of a property in Moulin-à-Vent by Louis Boillot and his family.

None of these producers would be investing in Beaujolais, however, if they didn’t feel confident in the region’s ability to deliver both quality and value for money. Their confidence in Beaujolais’s terroir should be a cue for fine wine investors everywhere to site up and take notice. Beaujolais, it would seem, is finally taking its place on the world stage.

The Wines of Beaujolais by Nathasha Hughes is published by Academie du Vin Library