Whether in Paris or Brooklyn, Tokyo, or Berlin, the wines of Beaujolais ignite a certain populist fervor. It’s not hard to understand why: Beaujolais is the OG of glou glou. Anyone from your nerdiest wine friend to your grandparents can love it, and Beaujolais Nouveau was once the world’s most celebrated party wine. But beyond winning renown for its vin de soif, Beaujolais has evolved into a sort of starter Burgundy. A hotbed for some of the world’s most dynamic winegrowing, Beaujolais’ best expressions of Gamay (and sometimes Chardonnay) are soulful and sensual wines that are innately savory and earthen. 

Despite all the buzz, Beaujolais is still a vastly underestimated region that’s too often summed up with generalities: Burgundy’s ‘country cousin,’ a hegemony of granite soils, quality wines bound to the region’s ten northern Cru. Well into this millennium, the narrative of Beaujolais often seems stuck on its deified Gang of Four producers—Marcel Lapierre, Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Jean Foillard—who revolutionized the region in the 1980s.

In truth, Beaujolais represents an unbridled, shifting landscape. To grasp its cutting edge and its future, you have to look past those generalities and delve into the fine print. Buying great Beaujolais today goes beyond identifying Cru appellations or cult producers. Increasingly, it’s a region that rewards recognition of the specificities of terroir and soil that have always existed, as well as an increasingly ambitious spectrum of winemakers – both homegrown and recently arrived.

Beaujolais: The Basics

At its most basic, Beaujolais can be distilled down to just 12 appellations. The generic Beaujolais AOC covers the entire region, but its straightforward, easy drinking wines are usually sourced from the limestone soils in the south that are considered less suitable for fine Gamay. The 38 communes labeled Beaujolais Villages are a notable step up. With more distinct terroir, typically in the northern half of Beaujolais, these villages represent the region’s mid-tier wines. The best wines of Beaujolais historically come from its ten Cru appellations. From north to south: Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly. Currently, Beaujolais has no Premier Cru or Grand Cru appellations–but that’s about to change.

Beaujolais Nouveau: Still a Great Excuse for a Party

Beaujolais Nouveau—those young, fruity reds released each year on the third Thursday of November—might seem entirely passé these days. If you get beyond the mass-produced, bubble-gum and banana-scented ilk, however, Nouveau represents the kind of wines that are unabashedly visceral, cheeky and bright. They’re still worthy of a raucous party once a year. Nouveau from small growers–better known for their Cru bottlings–are a preview of what’s to come for each vintage. Top producers like Jean Foillard, Jean-Paul Brun, Laurence et Remi Dufaitre and others make commendable versions of Nouveau that will leave more than a fleeting impression.

Beaujolais' Gang of Four, and Their Legacy

Most Beaujolais aficionados can retell the story of the Gang of Four–likely with some gusto. Amid the industrial blight of Beaujolais in the 80s, Lapierre, Foillard, Thévenet and Breton (sometimes the gang goes up to five or six, including Yvon Métras and Jacques Neauport, better known as Bidasse, depending on who’s telling the story) united against industrialization and commodification with a radical return to old-school winegrowing. Eschewing inoculated yeasts, added sulfur dioxide, chaptalization, fining, and filtration, the Gang pioneered the modern-day natural wine movement by focusing on better, truer expressions of Beaujolais.

Wine produced by members of the Gang are still benchmarks for the region. In Morgon, where the Gang continues to hold court, the wines of Marcel Lapierre are now helmed by a new generation, Mathieu and his sister Camille Lapierre. Their Morgon Cuvée Marcel Lapierre (produced only in exceptional vintages) and Cuvée Camille are reference points for the Cru’s powerful and often surprisingly age worthy wines.

Foillard’s Cuvée 3.14, Thévenet’s Vieilles Vignes, and Guy Breton’s Vieilles Vignes and P’tit Max are all exemplary, must-know expressions of Morgon. 

But the story doesn’t stop with the Gang of Four. “There’s a new dynamism in Beaujolais today, unlike even five or ten years ago,” says Franck Manigand, a third-generation Beaujolais winegrower who acquired his own estate, Château de la Perrière, in 2020. “There are a lot of new people in Beaujolais today,” he says, “and a new generation coming back into the vineyards with a different vision of winemaking”. 

Increasingly, Beaujolais draws on producers from neighboring Burgundy. As far back as the ‘90s, there were familiar negociants here, such as Louis Jadot’s Château des Jacques, Albert Bichot’s Domaine de Rochegrès and the Henriot family’s (owners of Bouchard Père et Fils) Château de Poncié.  But today, it’s not just negociants who are attracted to cheaper vineyards—when compared to Burgundy, at least—and the potential of Beaujolais. Blue-chip Burgundy producers like Thibault Liger-Belair, Frédéric Lafarge and Philippe Pacalet produce wine here too. Philippe Pascal, the former LVMH executive who founded Cellier aux Moines in Givry and most recently, Mont Bessay in Juliénas says Beaujolais, particularly its northernmost Cru of Saint-Amour, is particularly attractive for Burgundian winemakers. They feel it’s “a natural continuation of South Burgundy.”  

New-ish Names to Know

Relative newcomers that define winegrowing in Beaujolais today include: 

• Yann Bertrand, an outspoken proponent of biodynamics for the new generation of Beaujolais winegrowers, and Anne Sophie Dubois, an import to Beaujolais Champagne, both in Fleurie. 
• Domaine de Fa, helmed by the Croze-Hermitage legend Alain Graillot, in Fleurie and Saint Amour.
• Domaine Anita, whose wines span Moulin-à-Vent and other top Cru, but also highlight exceptional terroir within the Beaujolais-Villages.
• Jean-Marc Burgaud in Morgon, who makes thrilling wines for remarkably reasonable prices and who champions the up-and-coming Beaujolais-Villlage Lantignie monopole Chateau du Thulon.
• Domaine Bonnet-Cotton, a merger of Pierre Cotton and his partner Marine Bonnet in Brouilly and the Côte de Brouilly.

Premier Cru Beaujolais?

Consumers have only recently come around to the significance of the Beaujolais Cru, or iconic vineyard sites like Morgon’s Côte du Py. But Manigand and his colleagues are pushing the focus further, beyond AOCs to “specificities of vineyard site, soil and terroir and the character and singularity of each region,” he says.

Beaujolais may not be known for Burgundy’s hyper-obsessive history of classifications and climate. But Beaujolais and Burgundy are neighbors, with narratives and borders that forever overlap. Beaujolais, too, has a deep, unsung diversity of terroir and soil, as well as historic lieux dits. These details are only starting to reappear on labels and regional maps. 

Fleurie’s application to the French governing body, the INAO, seeking Premier Cru status for select vineyard sites, was the region’s groundbreaking development of 2023. Its move is likely to be followed by Côte de Brouilly, Brouilly, Juliénas and Moulin-à-Vent in 2024. More than just a bump in classification, the applications seek enforcement of stricter quality guidelines that will reduce yields, require longer barrel maturation, and commitments on sustainability and preservation. 

In Fleurie, contenders for this new Premier Cru status include lieux dit from some of the region’s most sought-after producers, Métras’ Grille Midi and La Madonne, Domaine de la Grand’Cour’s La Chapelle des Bois, or Domaine Coudert’s Clos de la Roilette. In Brouilly, a Cru better known for its easy drinking wines, Premier Cru designations will help distinguish historically exemplary lieux dit like Chateau Thivin’s Reverdon, Pierre Chermette’s Pierreux, or La Perrière, the namesake vineyard of Manigald’s estate. 

Extensive soil surveys conducted in Beaujolais over the last 15 years have provided much data for these applications. But winegrowers say that the data only justified distinctions in terroir that they’ve known for generations. That data also shifts frameworks of how producers and wine professionals are thinking about Beaujolais. The region is no longer simply a vast swathe of granite in the north and limestone in the south, but, as Manigald describes, “a diverse mosaic” of over 300 different soil types with so much potential for further exploration.

Beaujolais’ Southern Horizons

The limestone-dominant terroir of the south—which has a reputation for mass-produced, bulk Beaujolais and no Cru appellations—is largely dismissed, even by veteran wine pros. 

Gamay isn’t supposed to thrive on limestone, but winegrowers like Jean-Paul Brun have made a name for the Pierres Dorées, the sunny yellow limestone outcrop that sources his L’Ancien Vieilles Vignes. Beyond Gamay, Brun’s Beaujolais Blanc is one of the best bargains in Chardonnay today. Since Chardonnay grown on the limestone in Southern Beaujolais can also be labeled Bourgogne or Coteaux Bourguignon, increasing numbers of negociants from Burgundy are there now too. 

Indeed, for lovers of Chardonnay, the line between White Burgundy and Beaujolais Blanc is blurry. In the limestone soils of the north, Beaujolais overlaps with the Mâconnais, including pockets of Mâcon, Saint-Véran and Pouilly-Fuissé. Chardonnay produced here is typically sold as Mâcon, Bourgogne Blanc or Crémant de Bourgogne. But it could also be sold as Beaujolais Blanc or Beaujolais Villages. Some producers, like Château des Jacques, produce two expressions of Chardonnay from the same plot in the Mâcon, vinifying their Beaujolais in stainless steel and their Bourgogne Blanc in barrel. Château Thivin, Château de Grand Pré and Arnaud Aucoeur all make bright, sun-kissed expressions of Beaujolais Blanc. But if you can find it, Mee Godard’s 2022 Beaujolais Blanc is an especially vibrant, delicate wine with a gorgeously chalky finish.

Climate and Vintage Conditions 

With the exception of 2021 and 2023, Beaujolais has enjoyed an unprecedented stretch of dry, sun-drenched vintages in recent years. Over the last few decades Beaujolais, particularly its Cru, is producing richer, riper and more concentrated wines. So much so that you’re likely to hear winemakers remark that Gamay in these “solar” vintages – 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 – are reminiscent of wines from their southern neighbors in the Rhône. Dark fruited, dense and often robust in tannins, they’re also wines likely to reward aging.

The bad news is that extreme weather conditions have decimated yields in recent vintages. Prolonged drought in 2022 and 2023, punctuated by severe summer hail and storms in 2023, and spring frost in 2021 all resulted in devastatingly small production. As throughout much of France, 2021 and 2023 were complicated vintages in Beaujolais. But the wines are perfumed, fresh-fruited and spry – very much a throwback to the more delicate, lower alcohol vintages of the 80’s and 90’s, but also less consistent when it comes to quality.  

Is there Age-Worthy Beaujolais?

Most Cru Beaujolais aren’t likely to appreciate in value – Metras’ Cuvée l’Ultime or Foillard’s 3.14 are notable exceptions – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold them for personal enjoyment. A good Cru Beaujolais, particularly from sturdier appellations like Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Juliénas, and Côte de Brouilly, has the tannins and concentration to cellar remarkably well for a decade or even two. After just five years, many will start to show seductively truffly, earthen scents that seem deceptively Burgundian. Guy Breton’s Morgon P’tit Max, which is made from 100-year old vines, is a consistent example of age-worthy Beaujolais. 

Drier, hotter vintages like 2018, 2019 and 2020 produced richer, more structured wines that are likely to age particularly well. Conversely, 2021’s more delicate wines seem less suited for aging. But a recent tasting of Domaine du Mont’s intensely concentrated 2021 Juliénas En Bessay strongly suggests that ageworthiness depends upon the winemaker. Despite a vintage marked with hail damage and disease, exceptionally stringent grape selection at Domaine du Mont yielded a tiny quantity of wines with bold concentration, perfume and structure likely to improve over the long haul.    

Longtime fans of Cru Beaujolais are inclined to grouse about surging prices for benchmark bottlings. Top cuvées from producers like Foillard, Lapierre or Yann Bertrand sell for nearly twice what they commanded a decade or two ago. But Beaujolais remains an astonishing value. Prices have remained largely static for most of its vigneron, despite skyrocketing increases in neighboring areas of Burgundy or the Northern Rhône. For less than you might pay for a good Petit Chablis or Bourgogne Rouge, you can still find exceptional bottlings of Cru Beaujolais–even exemplars like Clos de la Roilette’s Fleurie or Nicole Chanrion’s Côte de Brouilly—for less than $30 retail. And even in painfully low-yielding vintages, you’ll still find Cru Beaujolais from top producers like from producers like Château Thivin, Domaine Bertrand, and Julien Duport for $20 to $30. 

For even more bargains, look to Beaujolais Village, particularly the more ambitious named appellations like the Beaujolais-Villages-Lantignié (rumored to be a contender for Cru status), where you’ll find distinctive expressions of old-vine Gamay often reminiscent of the Côte de Brouilly—or even the Côte du Py.