Beaujolais 2025 Tasting Report: Make Way for the New Beaujolais

The last vintages in Beaujolais ranged from the cool and wet 2021 and 2024 to the very hot and dry 2020 and 2022, with 2019 and 2023 between those extremes. The climatic differences clearly marked the wines but didn't tell the full story in this beautiful hill country. Far more important has been the extraordinarily rapid improvement in the quality of the region’s best wines over the past five years.

Anita Neveu of Domaine Anita explained the internal logic of this very well while driving me to her winery in Chenas through bright spring sunshine. “There are now two types of winemakers in Beaujolais: those who are absolutely determined to make top quality every year, and those making normal wines to a price point.“ The former professional cyclist, who was once a member of the French national team, rightly puts herself in the former group.

Her statement oversimplifies the situation, but only slightly. For me, there’s no doubt that Beaujolais winemakers as different as Anita Neveu, Mee Godard in Morgon, Yohan Lardy in Moulin-a-Vent, Guillaume Goujon in Cote-de-Brouilly and J.B. Bachevillier in Blace are all quality fanatics pushing the envelope for what Beaujolais wines can be.

The combination of their dedication to quality and excellent terroirs puts the high-end of what I call "New Beaujolais" in the same league as the leading winemakers of Burgundy, Piedmont or Napa Valley. Many readers will probably need to let that bold statement sink in, because consumers around Planet Wine are only just beginning to wake up to New Beaujolais.

However, don’t hesitate too long, because this development creates a wonderful situation for savvy consumers. You see, the prices for nearly all high-end New Beaujolais are really friendly, often offering incredible value for money. I strongly recommend that you first read this story and some of the tasting notes below to figure out which producer styles suit you best.

My tasting at Domaine Anita said everything about the radical change of recent years. Her Beaujolais-Villages, from a steep, high-altitude vineyard with granite soil, is already a beauty. There is also no doubt that two of her wines from Moulin-a-Vent (one of 10 village type Beaujolais cru appellations) are among the finest wines made in the region in modern times.

Domaine Anita’s Moulin-á-Vent La Rochelle 2023 is an extraordinarily seductive expression of Moulin-a-Vent. It’s dense, compact and plush, yet incredibly dynamic. In contrast, the Domaine Anita Moulin-á-Vent Coeur de Vigneronne 2023 marries the depth and finesse of a grand cru red Burgundy to the vitality and purity that only this region’s wines can achieve. On the finish a mind-blowing, velvety texture is interwoven with intense crushed rock and wet-stone minerality.

All of the wines Neveu makes with her partner, Guy Marion, the former chief winemaker for industry giant Georges Duboeuf, are all seriously concentrated and more or less highly structured. This is arguably the one common thread running through New Beaujolais in spite of the differences in aromas, whether oak or no oak is used, and whether cask maturation is long or short.

The newest aspect of the region’s wines that you can taste right away is the exciting dry whites. They are all pure chardonnays and are increasingly grown on clay-limestone soils instead of the granite for which Beaujolais is famous. I just tasted the first really great chardonnay from the region, the joyful and expressive Domaine Dupré-Goujon Beaujolais-Villages Le Clos des Mûriers 2023. It’s brimming with stone fruit, lemon-curd and white flower aromas, and is also super-elegant with breathtaking purity and precision.

READ MORE BORDEAUX 2022 VINTAGE REPORT: FRESH SPIN ON A HOT YEAR 

The new wines that you can’t taste yet are the Beaujolais premier crus that are currently works in progress. The producers associations for the appellations of Fleurie, Moulin-a-Vent and Brouilly have already submitted applications to France's National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO), which handles the legal recognition of appellations in France. Fleurie was the first to apply, asking for premier cru status to be awarded to seven sites, then Moulin-a-Vent and Brouilly followed, asking for 14 and 16 sites, respectively, to be recognized as premier crus.

At present, each of them is a so-called lieu-dit, or a vineyard site whose name can appear on the label of wines that originated there but is not yet classified. Nobody knows how long it will take for the first Beaujolais premier cru applications to be approved and it could take a few years, as the process is complex and bureaucratic. However, it is clear that in the Morgon appellation, change is coming quick.

Morgon is an exception among the 10 Beaujolais crus, each of which includes the vineyards of a small handful of villages, one of which gives the name to the appellation. You see, the vineyards of the Morgon appellation are not only divided into lieu-dits, or single-vineyard sites, but they’re also grouped into “climats,” and each of the climats is named after one of the lieu-dits it includes.

Let me explain this as simply as possible. One of the most famous lieut-dits in Beaujolais is Morgon’s  Cote du Py. Currently, Cote du Py on the label could mean the wine comes from the lieut-dit of that name – a hill with volcanic soil. Alternatively, it could come mean that the wine comes from a nearby vineyard site with a different name, soil and exposure that’s part of the “climat” Cote du Py. This confusion is the reason the INAO is insisting on the abolition of Morgon’s climats with the 2024 vintage.

“What makes this difficult is that the climat names have been in use since the 1950s,” explained Jean-Marc Burgaud, one of Morgon’s leading producers. “For decades the authorities turned a blind eye to this situation, but no longer.“

The Jean Marc Burgaud Morgon Côte du Py 2023 is one of the stars of the vintage with haunting aromas of violets, forest floor, red beets and berries. The combination of great concentration and finesse is as breathtaking as the dazzling mineral freshness in the almost endless finish.

“I am lucky, because that wine comes entirely from five hectares of vineyards in the lieut-dit Cote du Py, so I don’t have to change that name,” Burgaud said. “However, I will have to change the names of some other wines: Charmes will become Ruyere, Grand Cras will switch to Chollet and Corcelette will become La Roche.”

Of course, not everyone is so happy. “Our customers in the trade and the consumers don’t have a problem with the current situation, and we therefore don’t see the need for change.” Julien Revillon of the Dominique Piron winery in Morgon explained pragmatically. However, change is now unavoidable and will not alter the quality or distinctiveness of wines like Revillon's excellent Morgons.

The fact that Georges Duboeuf has introduced an impressive range of nine lieut-dit wines with the 2023 vintage says everything about the way the focus of New Beaujolais is single-vineyard wines. They are in the process of joining the 10 Beaujolais crus as the new mainstream.

Even more radical are the wines Jean-Baptiste Bachevillier is making under his own name, the Domaine Mont Joly name and for Domaine Morisseau. Although the passionate yet very precise Bacheviller makes some wines from Beaujolais cru, the most extraordinary of his wines come from vineyards around the town of Blace with the Beaujolais-Villages appellation.

The Domaine de Mont Jolly Beaujolais-Blacé 85.45 2022 is a game-changing wine that conclusively proves that this is as special a vineyard location as Bachevillier is a great winemaker, and that the gamay grape is capable of miracles. Although it is hugely concentrated with a tannin structure that washes over you like a giant wave, it also envelops you like a cloud of black raspberry aroma. Small wines from gamay can lose through maturation in oak, but this one took 22 months in 600-liter oak casks in its stride.

If you scroll down through the more than 700 notes in this report, you will find more Beaujolais-Villages and even a few simple Beaujolais that prove these large appellations are very heterogeneous. I predict that during the next five years many niches in them will start to build a special reputation, as Blace is already doing (Domaine Dupre-Goujon’s amazing white Beaujolais-Villages also comes from here!)

It was wonderful to see how some winemakers who are anything but New Kids on the Block, like Michel Guignier of Morgon, are also part of this movement. He started making wine in 1989, and the Michel Guignier Morgon Canon 2017 was the most amazing wine I tasted on my first trip to Beaujolais for JamesSuckling.com back in March 2019.

The Michel Guignier Morgon Canon 2023 is not only one of the highest scorers in this report but it is also the finest wine Guignier has ever made. It's truly breathtaking mineral brilliance and energy hypnotized me. It is revolutionary in its intensity, yet it encapsulates the spirit of the region in an uplifting way. The pristine and precise finish is incredibly long and pure. Tasting it at Guignier’s restaurant La Robe Rouge was a moment of pure inspiration.

Finally, let’s come back down to earth and take a quick look at the latest vintages. Adrien Duboeuf-Lacombe of Georges Duboeuf is a great source of information, because the company is involved in so many parts of the region. “2023 was such an easy harvest,” he told me. “We started on Sept. 1 and everything went smoothly.”

This is what winemakers all over Planet Wine dream of!

In contrast, 2024 was an old-fashioned-type vintage in which the grapes struggled to ripen. “It was the wettest year in France since 30 years and the quantity was way down,” Dubeouf-Lacombe told me. “However, the dry weather in late August and right through September helped give us some very good wines. Those who waited for ripeness did well.”

For now, he and his best colleagues are delighted with the 2023 vintage. “2023 is my favorite vintage of my career,” Burgaud, said. “The 2023s have potential but they are ready to drink and are a joy to drink!“

Our one word of caution concerns those basic Beaujolais wines made to a price point. They are quite a mixed bag, some not reflecting the enormous potential of the 2023 vintage. They are not part of the New Beaujolais.

– Stuart Pigott, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.