Beaujolais-Villages wines offer excellent value to both connoisseurs and those just discovering red wine. Beaujolais-Villages can be complex and elegant – and, like most Beaujolais wines, they are easy to drink, fresh-tasting and relatively light-bodied.
Throughout the northern part of France’s Beaujolais region, 38 villages have been recognized for producing wines superior to those of the larger Beaujolais region. Their wines are entitled to the Beaujolais-Villages appellation. Their sunny and well-drained hillsides are ideally suited to growing and ripening Gamay, the red grape of Beaujolais.
Ten of the villages are noted for producing particularly distinctive wines, which may be labeled Cru Beaujolais. In general Cru Beaujolais wines are the most perfumed and concentrated of Beaujolais.
The 10 Beaujolais crus, from north to south, are Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Côte de Brouilly and Brouilly. Cru Beaujolais wines from the northernmost areas, just south of the Burgundy wine region, are often more substantial, and better able to age, than those produced elsewhere in Beaujolais.
