Beaujolais and its Grands Vins - Christophe COQUARD

The Beaujolais Vineyard

I was born in Beaujolais and when I was younger, I ‘went winemaking’ on several continents (California, South Africa, New Zealand) to enrich my experience, discover new horizons and ways of working with vines and wines. I discovered very beautiful vineyards yet I remain convinced of one thing … Beaujolais is one of the most beautiful and sensual vineyards in the world!

The Beaujolais vineyard is accessible to everyone, it offers sumptuous, rich and inspiring landscapes with hills, valleys, picturesque villages and numerous châteaux. Not forgetting, of course, the wonderful ‘Golden Stones’ district where Maison Coquard itself is located.

Beaujolais - Pierres Dorées - Gamay - Christophe Coquard

The wines are unique because Beaujolais is without doubt the best place to give full expression to its emblematic grape variety; the black Gamay with white juice. In the diversity of Beaujolais terroirs, Gamay offers high-class red and rosé wines.

There is no other vineyard in the world that offers such beautiful aromatic expressions of the Gamay grape variety as Beaujolais! Depending on the terroirs, Gamay is capable of producing very elegant, youthful wines with subtle aromas of red and black fruits and even more serious, age-worthy wines from the 10 Crus villages – these are wines with complex and distinguished fruitiness, suitable for laying down.

For its white wines, Chardonnay thrives on the parts of the region with limestone and marly soils.

Beaujolais is easy to understand, there are 12 appellations like the 12 months of the year and among these 12 appellations, there are 10 crus, like the 10 fingers of the hand. The other two appellations are the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations which extend over larger areas.

The map of Beaujolais and Mâconnais wines

Beaujolais wines

Beaujolais produces wines that are well suited to the modern era, and indeed to modern tastes and preferences.

Wines accessible to all because they are aromatic, fruity and supple,
Wines that do not require any ceremony (no need to decant, or bring to room temperature),
Wines that do not demand aging in the bottle and can therefore be enjoyed with confidence immediately after purchase,
Wines that are easy to understand (1 grape variety, 12 appellations),
- Proudly different from most other French wines, which are often criticized for their “complexity”…,
- Exciting wines for true amateurs and professionals alike, with a great diversity of styles expressed by nuances and finesse, with a beautiful minerality...,
Wines fully benefiting from the “French paradox” (beneficial effects on health) because 96% are red wines,

Wines that can be consumed on multiple occasions / situations,

Wines that go well with many cuisines, thanks to:
- their fresh fruitiness (well suited, in particular, to Japanese cuisine, which is not so well suited to more "dominant" wine styles)
- their very supple tannins (suitable, in particular, for spicy cuisines)
- and their good acidity (suitable, in particular, for Chinese cuisine, because very different dishes are served at the same time):
Wines that accompany and enhance a meal but will never "crush" the food flavours,
Wines that can be served chilled (if desired),
Very digestible wines thanks to a refreshing acidity and a moderate alcohol content,
Wines that do not tire the palate because they are never too concentrated or tannic.