Thursday, November 21, is the national release of Beaujolais Nouveau. A primeur wine which has made its revolution. For the best.
It is the first wine of France. And like everything else, it has its detractors and its supporters. Except that when you stick your nose in, things have changed a lot. Certainly, we still find new, chemical and strong-tasting Beaujolais, from the time when considerable volumes (several million hectoliters) were produced, with large bursts of yeast which generated diverse tastes.
But Beaujolais has undergone its transformation, the appellation has undergone its revolution. “We looked for much more identified wines, with characteristics that represent each terroir and each winemaker, says Jean-Marc Lafont, president of the Beaujolais inter-profession and owner-manager of Domaine de Bel-Air, in Lantignié (north Beaujolais). We carried out all this with a radical change in the vineyard, since all Beaujolais wine growers today almost all have environmental certification. This set of things gives us wines which are now much closer to hand-sewn, with vintages which will reflect each winemaker, each terroir, each estate and with truly very different styles. So there is not a new Beaujolais but new Beaujolais.“
Like each winegrower, each terroir
But what exactly is a primeur? A wine with relatively short vinifications, between five and eight days, shortened aging processes and packaging in the very last weeks before consumption.
“The whole point of a new wine is, when we put it in the bottle, to trap the fruit very quickly to have this explosive aromatic side, very gourmand, very elegant, which we find on fruit Beaujolais, that is to say the primary aromas of the Gamay grape variety, Beaujolais, including new ones, are today close to hand-sewn, with vintages in the image of each winemaker, each. terroir, from each area and with really very different styles.
Read also:
– How Beaujolais is experiencing the ordeal of climate change
– The new Beaujolais strategy to rejuvenate its image
– “Beaujolais Nouveau are easy-drinking wines that call for drinking”
The entire interview with Jean-Marc Lafont
Hello everyone and welcome to this new meeting of 6 minutes flat. Today we welcome Jean-Marc Lafont, hello.
Bonjour.
Jean-Marc Lafont, you are a winemaker in Lanitgnié, in the north of Beaujolais, and president of Inter Beaujolais. This Thursday, November 21, like every third Thursday of the month, Beaujolais Nouveau is released, or, rather THE Beaujolais Nouveau. It is the first wine of the year in France. So first question anyway, what is a primeur?
A primeur is a wine that is consumed in the months following its vinification, that is to say that these are wines that we will consume from Thursday November 21 and which were harvested at the beginning of September.
How exactly do you make a wine in a few weeks?
Very, very quickly. The vinifications are relatively short, they last 5, 6,7, 8 days and then, all the aging phenomena are rather shortened. We package these wines in the last weeks, our last new Beaujolais last week.
So in the end it will give a wine with the freshness of the wine and on wines which will ultimately be, we will say, a little crunchy, gourmand, is that ultimately what sums up Beaujolais Nouveau?
The whole point of a new wine is actually, when we put it in the bottle, to trap the fruit very quickly to have this explosive aromatic side, very delicious, very elegant, which we find on fruit beaujolais, that is to say the primary aromas of the Gamay grape variety.
Yes. In fact, in the past, indeed, Beaujolais Nouveau has had phenomenal success – since the 1950s -, with an explosion on all international markets and wines which sold in very large volumes. It has not escaped your notice that we went through a relatively significant crisis around twenty years ago. Since then, the strategy that has been put in place has been to rebuild our entire image, and all our qualities, by trying to find much more identified wines, with characteristics that represent each terroir and each winemaker. In addition, we carried out all this with a radical change at the level of the vines, since all Beaujolais wine growers today almost all have environmental certification. So, all of this set of things gives us wines that are now much closer to hand-sewn, with vintages that will reflect each winemaker, each terroir, each estate and with truly very different styles. So there is not a new Beaujolais but new Beaujolais.
How do you explain that for years we talked about the banana flavor in fact it was ultimately a yeast that was used, is that a bit like that?
So the banana taste, which I personally don't like very much, is something which is relatively classic, which we find in all the amyl aromas of Gamay wine, but not only that. And indeed, around twenty years ago, certain yeasts used by winegrowers or merchants favored this aroma. Today, we are no longer there at all. Most winegrowers now work with indigenous yeasts, that is to say yeasts which are naturally on the grapes, in order to show all the diversity of each terroir, of each winegrower. And then it’s the winegrower’s touch that will make the difference.
So it’s a subject in itself, it’s the adaptation of the Beaujolais vineyard to climate change. had read the sentence of a researcher Hervé Quenol who said “the question is not “will there be vines in 2050?”, the real concern is to know if we will succeed in make a wine with the same characteristics while avoiding changing the grape variety. Today, there are many things being done in Beaujolais, such as the adaptation of new grape varieties. How do we ultimately keep the taste character of Gamay in Beaujolais?
The characteristics have changed, indeed. We have been at the front of the line to see this climate change for many years. We see that the harvests, each year, are earlier and earlier, so that is an undeniable fact. What do we do? First of all, we try to harvest a little earlier, we also try to manage our plots a little differently; in the past, 25 years ago, we sought to have larger leaf surfaces to ripen our grapes a little better, today we tend to reduce them a little to avoid having too many degrees of alcohol. For what ? Because 25 years ago, we were looking for wines that were a little warmer, a little more alcoholic. Today, it's completely the opposite: we no longer have these problems at all. Our objective is to seek freshness, finesse and elegance. Afterwards, there is everything that we are going to do in terms of managing the vines, that is to say maintaining the soil, such as leaving grass, increasing organic matter so that the soil retains a little better water. Finally, there is a lot of very long-term in-depth work going on so we are not ready to see Gamay disappear.
