Why Beaujolais Is Back, and Which Bottle to Buy

Beaujolais is back because it delivers what red Burgundy used to at a third of the price: a light, fresh, low-tannin red that takes a chill and suits almost any dinner. The grape is Gamay, the region sits just south of Burgundy, and the tier printed on the label decides whether you get a party wine or a serious one.

Why Beaujolais fell out of fashion

Blame the marketing success. In the 1970s and 80s the négociant Georges Duboeuf turned Beaujolais Nouveau, the region’s weeks-old harvest wine, into a global event. Every third Thursday of November the banners went up, “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé”. The wine itself was thin and tasted of banana and bubblegum, a by-product of the fast carbonic fermentation used to get it out the door. For twenty years that was the only Beaujolais most people drank, and by the 1990s the region was a punchline. In 2001 a French critic called one release “vin de merde”, and the growers’ association sued the magazine that printed it.

What changed

Two things, thirty years apart. In the 1980s a handful of growers in the cru village of Morgon, led by Marcel Lapierre and Jean Foillard, started making slow, serious Gamay with almost nothing added. Their wines became the founding myth of natural wine, and sommeliers who came up through that movement carried Beaujolais onto wine lists that had never stocked it.

The second thing was Burgundy’s price. A village-level red Burgundy that cost around $25 a decade ago now routinely sells for $50 or more, while a top Morgon from the growers who built the category still sits around $40 to $50. Gamay is Pinot Noir’s country cousin from the next hill over, and it offers the lightness people want at a price they can open on a Tuesday. The chillable-red trend did the rest. Google searches for Beaujolais pairings have tripled over the past three months.

The three tiers on the label

The tier matters more than the vintage or the producer, and the one trap is that the best bottles do not say “Beaujolais” on the front at all.

Tier	What the label says	Typical US price	What it drinks like
Beaujolais / Nouveau	”Beaujolais” or “Beaujolais Nouveau”	$10–15	Light and simple, drink within a year
Beaujolais-Villages	”Beaujolais-Villages”	$14–20	More depth, still easy, one to three years
Cru	Only the village name	$22–45	Structured, serious, the best age five to ten years

The ten crus are Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly, all on granite hills in the north of the region. A bottle that just says “Morgon” or “Fleurie” is a cru Beaujolais, and it is the one to buy. Our label guide covers why French labels lead with the place name.

Which cru to buy

The crus fall into rough weight classes, and the weight tells you when to open them.

• Fleurie, Chiroubles, Saint-Amour: the lightest and most floral. Chill these and drink them young. Clos de la Roilette makes a benchmark Fleurie for around $25.
• Brouilly, Régnié, Juliénas: the juicy middle, all red cherry and easy acidity. This is the tier for a weeknight roast chicken.
• Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Côte de Brouilly, Chénas: the deepest and most Burgundy-like. Foillard’s Morgon Côte du Py, around $45, and Château Thivin’s Côte de Brouilly, closer to $28, are the names sommeliers reach for.

For around $20, Jean-Paul Brun’s Beaujolais “L’Ancien” shows what the basic tier tastes like when a serious grower makes it.

What to eat with it

Gamay has high acidity, soft tannin and pure red fruit, which is the profile that goes with the widest range of food. The classic matches come from Lyon, the city at the region’s southern edge: roast pork, sausages, charcuterie and anything with mushrooms. Roast chicken and turkey work for the same reason, which is how Nouveau’s November release made it the accidental Thanksgiving wine. Soft tannin also lets it sit next to salmon, which most reds cannot.

Serve it cool, around 55°F, as covered in our guide to chilling red wine. The one thing to keep it away from is a heavy steak with a rich sauce, which will bury it.

AboutWine reads the village name off the label and tells you which tier you are holding, whether to chill it and what it will go with, instead of handing you a score. Download it on the App Store.

Frequently asked questions

Is Beaujolais the same as Beaujolais Nouveau?

No. Nouveau is the young wine released on the third Thursday of November, only weeks after harvest, and it is meant to be gone by spring. Regular Beaujolais, Beaujolais-Villages and the ten crus are finished wines released the following year or later. Nouveau is a small slice of the region's output and the least serious wine it makes.

Should Beaujolais be chilled?

Lightly, yes. Twenty to thirty minutes in the fridge brings a Beaujolais or Beaujolais-Villages to around 55°F, where the red fruit tastes brightest. The bigger crus such as Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent are better a few degrees warmer, closer to 58 or 60°F, so give those half the fridge time.

Does Beaujolais age?

Nouveau and basic Beaujolais do not. Drink them within a year. The structured crus from Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent and Côte de Brouilly can go five to ten years, and with age they start to taste like mature Pinot Noir. Locals have a verb for it, 'pinoter', and it is the reason those three villages get compared to Burgundy.