french village house
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
french village house, holiday, france, burgundy, self-catering village house, traditional, rental, accommodation, auxerre, vezelay, chablis, morvan, canal, family, river, secluded, restored, walks, wine, vineyards, french village house
Located south of Burgundy, between Mâcon and Lyon, Beaujolais is a prosperous region. Cultivating almost 55,000 acres, more than the other three departments of Burgundy combined, it produces an average of 13 million cases annually. Best of all, once a year, when the world falls in love with Beaujolais Nouveau, nearly half of this crop is pressed, fermented, racked, fined, filtered and sold within weeks. The rapid cash flow generated is the envy of winemakers everywhere. This 34-mile strip along the Saône River, comprises the 4th department, Rhône, of the Burgundy region. Beaujolais is diverse geographically, but it is unified by the Gamay Noir grape. Ninety-eight percent of the area is planted with it. The other 2% is basically planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
From the 16th century onwards, the grape gradually became the dominant crop of the region. This was aided largely by improvements in transportation. As transportation improved the market expanded. For centuries, Lyon was the region's principle market. A crucial development for the economy was the opening of the Braire Canal to link the Loire and the Seine Rivers. Now Beaujolais was only two or three days journey by wagon to a water route that would take the wine all the way to Paris.
As the market for wines grew, new vineyards were planted away from the small towns and villages, and on better the soils and exposures of the hill slopes. Thus the "soil-zones" of Beaujolais were beginning to take shape.
Developing at the same time was a system of viticuture that exists to this day. Unlike Bordeaux, there are no large properties in Beaujolais. The system, called "vigneronnage," consists of hundreds of small to medium sized properties on which the grapes are grown. Most of these grapes are purchased by Négociants who make and market the wines.
Beaujolais is comprised of 12 appellations and is divided into Haut- and Bas-Beaujolais. This division is based on distinctions in the soil of each area. The valley of the River Nizerand, just north of the regional capital of Villefranche, is the dividing point. South of the river is the flat plains of Bas-Beaujolais. The soil here is rich and mostly limestone/clay with occasional sandy patches. The soil produces more quantity than quality.
North of the River Nizerand is Haut-Beaujolais. The hilly topography here has a lighter granite and schist based sandy soil and thus makes a better wine. It is in Haut-Beaujolais that you will find the Beaujolais-Villages appellation and the 10 Beaujolais Crus.
Beaujolais has the warm summers and cool winters indicative of a temperate climate. Snow is common in the winter as a result of its proximity to the Massif Central Mountains to the west. The hills of Beaujolais do provide some protection from the cold and rain generated in these mountains, but in late summer, hail storms are an all too frequent threat to the growers.
So abundant was Beaujolais in Lyon, it was said that Lyon had three rivers: The Rhône, the Saône and the Beaujolais.
Beaujolais is the young, refreshing, and fruity wine that has been so popular in the French cafes. Traditionally served from a 1.2 gallon jug, it is a carafe wine or as the French would say in Lyon, a "bouchons" wine. The fruity, exuberant, intensely aromatic wines produced here, owe a lot not only to the Gamay grape, but to the style of vinification used. In Beaujolais a variation of the maceration carbonique method or more simply, what has become to be known as the Beaujolais Method, is used. The strength of this method is that it extracts the maximum color and aroma from the grape without the astringency associated with red wine. The inherent fresh, fruity, and juicy characteristics of the Gamay grape make this a good marriage.