The Wicklow Wine Company Newsletter

Well, here it is, the first newsletter! Firstly, may we wish you all, if a touch belatedly, a happy New Year and the very best for 2007. Secondly, we would like to thank you for subscribing to this newsletter and for making the website a bit of an instant hit. Since going ‘live’ last November there have been enough hits to make it number three or four when googled.

The first article proper is about Beaujolais and ‘our’ producer, Jean-Claude Lapalu.

Beaujolais – A rediscovery

The region itself is in the middle of France, towards the east and is south of Burgundy, to which it technically belongs. It is some fifty-five kilometres long by half as wide again; it begins just south of Mâcon and ends a little north of Lyon. The northern half consists of rolling hills, the highest point being Mont Saint-Rigaud (1,012m). All the land up to five hundred metres is covered in vines and the hilltops are thickly wooded. The southern half from Villefranche-sur-Saône is much flatter. This is the Bas Beaujolais and this part produces wines that hardly interest, even in good vintages. This is because the clay soil rarely warms enough to give full flavour to the grapes.

Up North

In the northern section, the Haut Beaujolais, the terroir consists of sandy soils lying on very old granite, porphyry and schist. It is here, in acidic growing conditions that the famous grape, Gamay Noir au Jus Blanc, reveals its true expression and it is here that the fifty-nine communes that make up the Beaujolais-Villages and the ten named crus are located.

How the wines are made

The vines are planted singly, at a density of between nine and thirteen thousand per hectare. (This is similar to Burgundy, where the average is ten thousand per hectare, but considerably higher than in Bordeaux, where the average is between five and six thousand per hectare.) They are staked individually without trellising. After about ten years each plant is allowed to stand on its own, tied up with an osier. The grapes are all hand picked. This is because the vinification process used for nearly all Beaujolais is carbonic maceration, which requires whole bunches of grapes, neither crushed nor destalked. These bunches are used to fill a vat and the fermentation begins inside the grape without any yeast being involved. At the bottom of the vessel grapes are crushed by the weight of those above and the liberated juice starts to ferment in the normal aerobic manner. Carbon dioxide is produced; the gas surrounds the remaining fruit, excludes oxygen and lets the middle and upper layers undergo this anaerobic transformation. Wines made thus are characteristically full of fruit flavours, with little harsh tannins or malic acid. On the whole they are meant to be drunk young and therein lies both the glories and the problems of Beaujolais...

Over-production

For most wine drinkers the word Beaujolais is instantly followed by ‘Nouveau’. This style of young, fruity, juicy and easily quaffable wine was officially recognised in 1951, having been made in the region for generations. After a very short carbonic maceration of three to four days, the wine is kept in barrel for a mere six weeks. It is then bottled and released on the second Thursday in November. At its best it is a marvellous expression of joie de vivre and fun. The problem is (or perhaps was) that producers began to make more and more, until by 1992 over half the region’s production was Nouveau, with a consequent grave overall loss of quality. Allied to this were increasingly silly races, especially to London, to get the first of the new wine into bars and restaurants. The public perception of Beaujolais gradually fell and there emerged a disdain for and a dismissal of the whole region.

Re-establishing reputation

However, in the midst of this frenetic overproduction, an increasing number of independent winemakers were seeking to re-establish the reputation of the region. This was done by returning to traditional methods of viticulture and vinification and care and consideration for the grape. In doing so one of the most wonderful combinations in the world of wine, the marriage of Gamay Noir as Jus Blanc and the varied terroirs of the Haut Beaujolais, has re-emerged.

It was recognised over sixty years ago that the communes lying between the Bas Beaujolais in the south and the crus in the north deserved to have a ‘badge’ to reflect the higher quality of the wines. At first the original thirty seven were allowed to append their names to Beaujolais, in the same way that the Mâconnais do (as in Mâcon Lugny, Mâcon Uchizy et al). The system was rationalised in 1950 and the communes became known as Beaujolais-Villages collectively. It was this appellation which particularly suffered during the Nouveau boom years, the wines often being over warmed prior to fermentation, over chaptalised (enriched with additional sugars to increase the final alcohol level) and pumped over too often. For the most part this resulted in wines that were devoid of any real character, divorced from both terroir and fruit. It is little wonder that the wines of Beaujolais fell into disrepute with wine lovers.

The heart of Haut Beaujolais

The story was somewhat different within the ten crus themselves. They are in the heart of the Haut Beaujolais, in the hilliest parts of the north and on the most interesting terroirs. The emphasis has always been on quality. They have wonderfully evocative names – Saint-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon , Chiroubles, Régnié,. Fleurie… The largest is Brouilly, with 1200 hectares under vine, which entirely surrounds the Côte de Brouilly, an appellation of only 300 hectares. The soils in Brouilly are varied and range from alluvial to the blue-green granite close to Mont Brouilly itself. The wines produced show a wide variety of styles from easily drunk youngsters to some very intensely coloured and flavoured wines with good ageing potential. Well made Brouilly has a deep ruby colour, a wonderfully ‘grapey’ nose, with flavours of blueberries, apples, blackberries and plums.

Jean-Claude Lapalu

Jean-Claude Lapalu is a Brouilly producer with an outstanding reputation worldwide. He is imaginative and innovative in his approach to making wine . His watchword is ‘fruit’ and he is almost obsessed (and obsessive!) in his aim of growing grapes of better and better quality year in, year out.

Our association is the product of almost serendipitous circumstances. Like many in the wine trade, we were none of us particularly enthusiastic about Beaujolais. However, Michael came across a lovely Morgon, which we sold in the shop, but we could only get hold of a small allocation. So Mike immediately started to look at other producers and rapidly honed in on Jean-Claude; he made contact and finally managed to taste the wines in a restaurant in Grenoble, where his partner’s family lives. He loved them! He brought samples back and we all loved them too. A touch unfortunately Jean-Claude had none of his current year available, so we had to wait until the next vintage, 2004, was released before we were able to add the wines to our portfolio. When they finally arrived they proved an instant and resounding success. (Mike quietly confided later that whatever we had all thought, he was bringing them in regardless!) We are now very, very keen fans of quality Beaujolais.

Jean-Claude Lapalu produces six cuvèes; a Nouveau, ‘La Tentation’ (an entirely sulphur free Villages), a vielle vignes Beaujolais-Villages, a vielle vignes Brouilly and three named wines, ‘La Croix des Rameaux’, ‘La Cuvée des Fous’, both from Brouilly and ‘Le Rang du Merle’, a Beaujolais-Villages. He is a charming man, deeply passionate about the wines and determined to increase awareness of really top-class Beaujolais.

He very graciously agreed to be interviewed for this newsletter, click here to read more about Jean-Claude Lapalu .

Featured Beaujolais Wines and Tasting Notes

This article was written and compiled by George Staines of The Wicklow Wine Co.