Page 1 of 3

70 Sep, 2013

Wine Trail Wine Trail

Beau-jolais!

With yet another harvest season beckoning,

it’s time for Vignerons to celebrate the

fruits of their toil and passion. Spiritz

recounts the harvest experience of

Col Ravi Joshi who was in Beaujolais last

year to participate in this much looked

forward activity of the winemaking

process.

Robert Perroud (white T-shirt) and his team with

Col Ravi Joshi (black striped sweater)

www.spiritz.in

Page 3 of 3

72

Wine Trail

www.spiritz.in Sep, 2013

Vignobles Lucien Lardy

Wines: Fleurie, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, and Beaujolais

Villages

Another founding member of the Terroirs Originels,

Lucien Lardy has a diverse portfolio of wines. Monsieur

and Madame Lardy accompanied us to their vineyards at

Fleurie and Moulin-à-Vent where I again took charge of a

clipping tool and bucket to get up close and personal with

the grapes.

The wine portfolio of Lucien Lardy also includes

a Beaujolais Blanc and to my surprise — a Crémant

(sparkling) wine made using the Methode Traditionelle

(secondary fermentation in bottle). We tasted all of these

in his elaborate tasting room and once again, the diversity

of wines was well embossed.

This concluded my short but fulfilling experience of

harvest and it was time to bid Au Revoir to Beaujolais. My

experience concluded with Aurélien showing me around

the massive facility of Georges Dubœuf — the biggest

marketer of Beaujolais wines, and a familiar name of the

wine world. Getting dropped by Aurélien at my hotel in

Lyon further afforded me a great view of the countryside

abundant with rolling hills canopied by a pristine azure

sky. The Beaujolais charm continues to stay with me

thereafter.

And finally, wines of three winemakers I visited

(Emmanuel Fellot, Robert Perroud and Lucien Lardy) have

been selected by Jancis Robinson, MW, the demi Goddess

of wine world, as the best wines from the region. It thrills

me no end to believe that some of the grapes gone into

making these may well have passed my hands!

Beaujolais Snapshot

Total cultivation area: 23000 hectares under two departments — Rhône-Alps and Saône-et-Loire

(Burgundy).

Average annual production: 8,25,000 hecto litres (133 million bottles)

Exports: More than 40 per cent exported to around 135 countries

Wine style: Characterized by Carbonic Maceration that extracts more fruit flavours and less tannins.

Young and fruity wine best consumed within a year of

production

Same as Beaujolais Nouveau but with more alcohol

percentage

Wines produced with grapes grown in better notified areas,

closer to the prestigious slopes of Cru Beaujolais.

10 classified areas that produce complex, variedly styled and

many age-worthy wines. These areas are: Brouilly, Chénas,

Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Moulin-à- Vent, Morgon, Regnié and St-Amour.

Wine Style Characteristics

Beaujolais Nouveau (Released

in the market on the third

Thursday of November every

year)

Beaujolais Supérieur

Beaujolais Villages

Cru Beaujolais