The Beaujolais Region - All You Need To Know

The Beaujolais is to France what Yorkshire is to the UK – God’s Marvellous Country! Once you have been there, seen the scenery, tasted the food and wines, you’re captured for life. The food is hearty and certainly gets the juices going and the wines are the perfect partner to it. 

My first visit was to a wine negociant no longer going where after an enormous tasting I was entertained at the Chateau de la Barge in Creches sur Saone for lunch. And what a lunch! Sadly as I was driving I couldn’t indulge in the wines but I certainly did in the food. The next time I went I was not having to drive and enjoyed both!

From Pike from the Saone River through Bresse Chicken, onward to Charollais beef and finishing with some fine cheeses, the Beaujolais immediately won me over and now I never refuse the chance to go again. 

When you’re over there, it’s like driving through a wine list and every village brings back a memory. It's been a couple of years since we last went there buying, but what a joy it was. It culminated in a lunch at Le Cep with Alain Coudert who brought an aged bottle of his Fleurie Griffe du Marquis with him. Both the food and the wine were spectacular and the conversation flowed for several hours.

If you ever get the chance to go there, grab it with both hands!