THE 10 BEAUJOLAIS CRUS

Like Gaul, all of Beaujolais is divided into three parts: Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages and what are known as the Beaujolais “crus.”

While “Beaujolais” is the overall name for the huge winemaking engine of southern Burgundy, dozens of villages within it produce better-than-average wine and are allowed to use the collective term “Beaujolais Villages” on their labels.

But further, each of 10 additional villages is at the upper echelon of all Beaujolais and may use its village name alone to identify its wines. These are the 10 crus (singly, “cru”). Historically, they are the 10 best spots for growing (the grape) gamay. Each vineyard has its own characteristics and is thus identifiable, indeed namable, as such.

If on a visit to the Beaujolais region, you can stand at the crossroads where (the cru) Brouilly meets Côte de Brouilly and Morgon and you can see the blue granite soil of Côte de Brouilly, the pink granite of Brouilly and the beige, crumbly rocks of Morgon.

Actually seeing the different soils and then later tasting the wines from the different terroirs, it all makes sense.

Here are short descriptions of the wines of the 10 Beaujolais crus, in an optional tasting lineup from lightest to heaviest, should you ever find all 10 in glasses before you.

Régnié
The latest (in 1988) to be admitted to cru status, Régnié nuzzles the “lesser” Beaujolais-Villages appellation and its more sandy, silty soils. Given less of the prized granitic subsoils of the other crus, Regnie is simple, fruity and light.

Chiroubles
Very poor, sandy soils atop granite bedrock, combined with the cool growing temperatures at elevation, conspire to make Chiroubles a dainty, easy-drinking cru, softly textured and pleasing.

Brouilly
Soil types in Brouilly are heterogeneous, from sandy to granitic, the better wine coming from the latter. Overall, though, Brouilly is weightier in fruit than Regnie or Chiroubles and slightly more floral in aroma. It is also Beaujolais’ largest cru at 3,500 acres (or 20 percent of all the crus combined).

Côte de Brouilly
This appellation is a volcanic abutment that sits in the middle of the Brouilly terroir. Its mix of blue-tinged granitic and volcanic soils delivers gamay that is more fine and elegant than Brouilly, but also racier, even “tense”—a way to describe the wine’s “energy.”

Fleurie
A northerly cru and neighbor to one of the more robust of the 10, Moulin a Vent; here granite begins its rule. Poor soils make for low yields, so Fleurie is often opulent, always juicy, with much finesse.

Saint-Amour
The most northerly cru, approaching the clay-heavy terroir of the Mâcon district, hence wines that are at once heavier or coarser than the southerly crus, but also plusher and rounder. Aromas and flavors are of red fruits and spiced black cherry.

Juliénas
Soils very much like Saint-Amour’s, but on steeper slopes with a granitic underbelly, hence wines that can be powerful and opulent. Some Juliénas hints at minerals or earth in both scent and taste.

2021 Mont Bessay Juliénas "en Bessay"
Not your Nouveau's Beaujolais, this Juliénas comes at the hands of Philippe Pascal (Domaine Cellier aux Moines, Givry, Burgundy), a renowned winemaker and winemaker-as-mirror to the terroir of his grapes, in this case the humble Gamay. More meaty than fruity, it sports an almost-umami, spiced savoriness, wrapped in can't-see-'em tannins, everything carried by much length on the palate. Welcome crisp acidity, though, snaps a sip to a pleasant close.

Chénas
Pink granite, red sand and quartz make for poor soil but also for wines that are powerful and often with a peppery, spicy finish. Dark ruby red in color, Chénas is also the smallest of the Beaujolais crus at just under one square mile.

Morgon
An enormous land mass (nearly 3,000 acres) with varying soils gives differing styles of Morgon, but overall this is large-framed Beaujolais, deeply colored and weighty, profound, tannic and powerful.”

Moulin-à-Vent
The most granitic of the sols of all the crus produces gamay of great class and elegance, not comparable to the other crus. To distinguish between these two latter, more robust of the 10 crus, Morgon is a touch more “sauvage,” to use the French term, while Moulin-à-Vent will always be slightly more suave and elegant.

2021 Mont Bessay Moulin-à-Vent "Vieux Bourg"
Another Gamay from Philippe Pascal (Domaine Cellier aux Moines, Givry, Burgundy), this one less buoyant than the archetypical Beaujolais, more like a southern Burgundian Pinot Noir, which terroir Moulin-à-Vent just kisses at the Mâconnais, with its mineral savor and soft, dusty tannins (they barely qualify for the term "tannins"). Its hue, however, is the definition of "ruby" and reminds that it is indeed a Beaujolais.