I love Beaujolais. It’s the first wine where I really learned how to taste and dissect it’s components. I remember taking a mouthful and after a minute a lightbulb went off. Hey, I’m tasting black tea! OMG, I get it. After that experience, I was hooked on trying to get as good as possible with my tasting. It’s still a work in progress, but I am much better.
Another thing that I like about Beaujolais is that it isn’t so serious. Yes, the region is right next to the very serious area of Burgundy but the wine is more relaxed and fun. Beaujolais has all the quality soil, climate and winemaking of Burgundy but with the Gamay grape. So, you get a really quality wine without the Burgundian price tag. Also, Beaujolais has a fun, cotton candy quality not found in Burgundy. This is due to the carbonic maceration that is typically used in the production of Beaujolais. It find that it lightens up the wine, even with serious producers and makes the Beaujolais style a more drinkable everyday wine. However, with the Louis Jadot, they do not use carbonic maceration and use a more traditional Burgundian style of winemaking.
Because of the winemaking style, the Louis Jadot does not have the Jolly Rancher quality of other Beaujolais, but it still has a little bit of a candies strawberry quality from the grapes. It also has nice black cherry and spice notes that make the wine seem juicy in the mouth. When paired with food, this wine also shows a subtle, smoky tobacco note at the end, which keeps the fruit in balance.
I paired this wine twice. The first pairing was with a curry empanada and salad. The salad had a citrus dressing on it but did not clash with the wine. In fact, it brought forward the strawberry character and more of the smoky notes. The spices of both the empanada and the wine blended well together and it made for an enjoyable meal.
The second pairing was with buttered popcorn. I was watching a movie and decided to see if the Beaujolais would work with the popcorn. It wasn’t bad. The salt made the wine fruitier and the popcorn flavor blended with the tobacco notes nicely. The flavor of the popcorn wasn’t overwhelmed by the wine, which was a nice surprise. My favorite pairing for popcorn is still Chardonnay, but this isn’t bad.
If you are looking for an inexpensive, high quality French wine, I highly recommend giving Beaujolais a try and the Louis Jadot in particular. It is a red wine that is light enough to drink in hot weather, will appeal to those who like Burgundy or fruitier wines and is extremely food and budget friendly. This is a wine that you will find on my table year round and for the price, why not?