The red carpet in Romaneche-Thorins (Beaujolais)

This morning we were in Romaneche-Thorins, north of Belleville, France, where we toured the "Hameau DeBoeuf," the "Hamlet of DeBoeuf," where Georges DeBouef is, the largest maker of Beaujolais.

They really rolled the red carpet out for us. Yann, their manager of exports to the US (who travels in the US about a third of the year, and has been to Portland five times already), gave us a vineyard tour. The winery sits in Moulin a-Vent (named for a windmill), which is one of the ten or so upper-quality communes in Beaujolais. The winery was well worth seeing, as it has several innovations I had not seen elsewhere. We met the winemaker and toured the winery. We saw the vineyards of Moulin a'Vent, where the trunks are only 6" high with no trellises, so the vines grown into a low mound (to be close to the heat of the ground, we were told).

Then we went into the lab, where Mr. DeBoeuf (who's about 79 now) tastes over 300 wines per day--G.D. makes perhaps a dozen or so of their own wines, but they also put their name on the wines made by many small area growers, most of whom make their own wine and use G.D. for tasting advice and lab work; it's a great cooperation between one huge winery and many local growers and winemakers. The lab's tasting room is where Spectator and Parker come to taste! It has a huge tile island and many stainless steel sinks which have swirling water, where we spat out our tastes (pity, I know, but I had to drive to Geneva and through the Mt. Blanc tunnel back to Italy afterwards, and the Europeans are very strict about blood alcohol levels). We tasted 16 (!) wines that they opened just for us. That is awfully impressive. We were the first Americans to taste their 2011s; quite an honor,

My overall perceptions and tidbits for you:

1. Gamay is their only red grape; all their reds use 100% Gamay. And Beaujolais is small--only 30 miles wide and tall. So the wines reflect only the differences in terroir from site to site, and also the differences (which are few) in winemaking practices.

2. The order of grape regions there, heading north to south as the weather gets warmer, is Pinot Noir (Burgundy), then Gamay (Beaujolais), then Syrah (the Rhone Valley). This makes me wonder why more Willamette Valley growers don't plant some Gamay, instead of planting Syrah.

3. Gamay is a vinifera hybrid; one of its parents is Pinot Noir. This explains how the upscale G.D. Beaujolais that have been oaked have a distinct Pinot presence (barnyard nose; the subtlety of Pinot; etc).

4. G.D. also makes great--really great--Chardonnays from Macon Villages (just N of Beaujolais, in Burgundy) and from Pouilly Fuisse. These are given malo-lactic fermentation but are not California oak/butter bombs; very elegant while possessing just enough body and smoothness.

5. The G.D. wines are for the most part very low in cost, which is a great market segment for them, given the price of Burgundy and Bordeaux.

6. I preferred the newer (2010 and 2011) Beaujolais; the 2009's, while from their greatest year ever, have lost some fruit as the various secondary flavors emerge. This makes for a more-complex wine but I am not yet used to those flavors. The younger wines are very vibrant with fresh red fruit notes (cherry and raspberry), with good acidity (like Sangiovese here in Italy) so they marry well with food. We didn't have them with food, but I want to try them that way.

We were then given free passes to what must be one of the three finest wine museums in the world. We saw Roman wine amphora, a GIANT wine press that it took many men to operate, antique grapegrowing and winemaking tools, a bottle blowing exhibit, barrel making, etc. Really amazing. There are three theaters showing movies but we hadn't the time.

Also, the G.D. complex includes the town's train station and they even have a historic wine train (with tank cars for wine)! Plus a hotel and a retail shop where the wines are far cheaper than in the US (perhaps to the cost of shipping?). Yet these wines are very, very good for the price. Look for my offerings of them when we get home!

This was a very classy, impressively large, wine tourist experience!


Photos: 
1. Moulin A Vent (named for a windmill in the commune) is one of ten or so top Beaujolais communes, Hameau DuBoeuf sits in that commune.

 2. DuBoeuf's tasting room, with swirling sinks for spitting wine. This is where Spectator and Parker come to taste, so it was pretty cool. That's Yann on the right--he's their US export sales director.

 3. Hameau DuBoeuf is a complex which includes Romaneche-Thorin's train station and also a large and wonderful wine museum. They get about 200,000 visitors per year. Quite the opposite of the typical "we're not open to the public" model in Europe.

 4. We tasted '09s-'11s, Gamays and Chardonnays from nearby Pouilly-Fuisse.