Simply so French

Beaujolais was my first red wine, a true beginner’s wine because it was simply so  French,  so drinkable, so  available, and so inexpensive. I bought it for domestic wine and cheese parties, which were popular at that time, though British connoisseurs say today that wine and cheese don’t mix- tell that to the French! 

The shop where I bought it was Alastair Campbell’s in Bruntsfield, long defunct, but  very welcome in its day, with prices ranging from 25p (five shillings) for a bottle of red Algerian to around 50p for Chateauneuf du Pape, with Beaujolais notching in at 30p or so. Almost all their wine was French. though there were also Italian bottles, some Spanish Rioja and some Mosel, which we pronounced Moselle in those days  with the accent on the second syllable.

 Australian wine was not known to exist. When eventually it did, the wine of choice was called Kanga Rouge. Bull’s Blood from Hungary was something special to take to friends, or else Lutomer Riesling from Yugoslavia, because it was cheaper. But mostly it was Beaujolais which, even at its most basic, seemed a bit classier. Beaujolais-Villages, we knew, was better still, and the best Beaujolais of all had its own individual name, such as Fleurie, or Morgon, or Moulin a Vent, which was our favourite when we could afford it. 

Today the Beaujolais roll of honour remains more or less unchanged, though there came a point when nobody drank it because it had suddenly lost its credibility. That was the time of the great Beaujolais Nouveau race, when wine shops competed to be first to get the new wine. Some of this was rather good - Oddbins, when they first got going, were considered particularly  reliable - but most of it was bad, though people drank it all the same, often without noticing the difference. But in the end the word went round that it was undrinkable, which for a time  spelt the demise of Beaujolais including a lot of good Beaujolais also. 

Coming from the borders of Burgundy, though using a different grape, it should almost always have been good or goodish, of course.  It was a wine that certainly went well with steak and frites, with veal, liver and most French dishes other than fish. But lightly chilled, as was recommended, it could be tried with fish, too. In other words, it was a very useful wine which at its best could be considered even more than that. 

To disparage it, as some of us still do, is a serious blunder.  It’s a wine of which I continue drink quite a lot, and it’s a safe buy from most supermarkets (Waitrose’s house Beaujolais, with a railway engine on the label, is recommended).  The most famous producer is Georges Duboeuf, an apt  name for  Beaujolais. It is quite easy to find and comes bottled with lovely floral labels, particularly suitable for Fleurie.   But other names, such as Louis Jadot and Joseph Drouhin, are also good, and most of the recent Beaujolais vintages have been up to standard.

21 June 2014