When I initially signed up to host November's French Winophiles event, I thought it would be the perfect chance to delve into the polarizing Beaujolais Nouveau. Why is it beloved? Why is it hated?! But I didn't time that correctly. The third Thursday of the month - when Beaujolais Nouveau is released - was only two days ahead of our event. As everyone knows, I am not a last minute kinda gal. Instead I opened up the topic to all the wines of Beaujolais!
The Region
Beaujolais is a wine region just South of Burgundy. It should be noted that a few people consider Beaujolais an extension of Burgundy. It's not! Unlike Burgundy, the red wines of Beaujolais are mostly made from the Gamay grape but there are a few examples of Chardonnay and Gamay is used to make the Rosés from the region.
The Wines
There are four main red wine categories from Beaujolais: Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages, and Beaujolais Cru. Though they all hail from the Beaujolais wine region, their origins and styles are markedly different.
Beaujolais Nouveau, as I already mentioned is always released on the third Thursday of November. It is made with carbonic maceration, resulting in a slightly bubbly, fruit-forward wine that can be just barely stronger than grape juice. It's certainly the freshest, lightest of the Beaujolais wines.
Wines labeled Beaujolais are also very fruit-forward and made with grapes from the southern part of the region. Beaujolais-Villages is comprised of over three dozen permitted villages where wines are made with Gamay grapes from the northern part of the Beaujolais region. Finally Beaujolais Cru are considered the most complex of the red wines of Beaujolais and can only be grown in ten specific locales whose substrates are granite soils. The ten villages for Beaujolais Cru are Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à -Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Côte de Brouilly, and Brouilly.
I can't wait to see what the French Winophiles find to pour and pair.
How to Participate
Are you ready to jump in and participate in the November #Winophiles event? Here are the details…
Send an email - culinarycami[at]gmail[dot]com - to tell me you're in or post in the Facebook event group. Send your post title to me by Monday, November 13th (at noon, Pacific time), to be included in the preview post. When your post goes live, the published title should include "#Winophiles" but it doesn't need to be included for the title list.
Publish your post by 9am Saturday, November 18th at the latest. You can always schedule your post in advance if you will be tied up around then or publish on Friday.
Include a link to the other #Winophiles participants in your post, and a description of what the event is about. I'll provide the html code you can easily put in your initial post--which will link to people's general blog url--then updated code for the permanent links to everyone's #Winophiles posts.
Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers' posts to comment and share. Sponsored posts OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.
That's it! Hope you can join The French Winophiles to celebrate the wines of Beaujolais.