Beaujolais: the perfect red wine for winter drinking
Beaujolais: the perfect red wine for winter drinking
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Beaujolais, it turns out, is perfect for drinking throughout the winter months – and even at a cooler temperature than you might expect. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
![[Hannah Crosbie]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2024/12/18/Hannah_Crosbie.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Writing about wine can be just as seasonal as drinking it. As soon as the temperature creeps above 20C, we draft articles about “crisp, refreshing rosés”; when it’s cold, it’s all “warming, robust winter reds”; and on or around the third Thursday in November, we prepare pieces about beaujolais.
This, as I’m sure many of you will be well aware, is all down to beaujolais nouveau, the annual celebration of the first wines of the vintage that has given the region a reputation for conviviality and fun. So much so, in fact, that it has even reached deepest, darkest Swansea. If you haven’t yet seen the BBC Wales news piece about a group of women who spend hundreds of pounds on hair and makeup at 5am to celebrate Beaujolais Day, I implore you to do so right this second (I especially love that there isn’t a glass of red wine in sight). It is unapologetic high camp in its purest form.
Although mainstream appreciation for beaujolais tends to taper off by the start of December, it’s actually quite brilliant for drinking all winter long. Chilled reds aren’t just for summer, they’re made for a winter life “en terrasse” – these are wines that sing when they dip a few degrees below room temperature.
The sheer variety of beaujolais is also flattened by our perceptions of it (aren’t most things?). The region is famous for its pink granite, but the terroir is a diverse mosaic of different soil types – so diverse, in fact, that in 2018 Beaujolais was named a Unesco Global Geopark, after a nine-year field study discovered more than 300 soil variants.
