GRAPEVINE
Young and very beautiful: KATHRYN McWHIRTER ON BEAUJOLAIS
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Your support makes all the difference.Beaujolais comes from 60 communes south of Burgundy. Simple Beaujolais can in theory come from any of these communes, but is mostly from the less hilly villages of the south, the Bas Beaujolais. Picking carefully, you can find good-value basic Beaujolais. Best at the moment is the cherry- fruity 1995 Beaujolais (pounds 3.99 Safeway), with the 1995 Beaujolais (pounds 4.99 Marks & Spencer) coming in second.
Usually it's worth buying a Beaujolais-Villages, wine from 39 communes in the north of the region. A bottle of Beaujolais-Villages can come from one or many of these villages - small vineyards take grapes or wine to co-operatives or wineries to make a Beaujolais-Villages blend. But increasingly producers are hypenhating their village's name to 'Beaujolais' on their labels: Beaujolais-Pruzilly, Beaujolais-Julie. One of the best of the 1995 Village wines is the 1995 Beaujolais-Villages, Collonge (pounds 6.10 Wine Society), followed by 1995 Beaujolais-Villages, Cuvee Prestige, Paul Sapin (pounds 5.75 Roger Harris) and 1995 Beaujolais-Villages, Les Roches Grillees (pounds 4.95 Sainsbury's).
Ten northern villages have been granted the accolade: of 'cru' status. Chiroubles, St Amour and Fleurie tend to make lightish wines but richer than ordinary Beaujolais-Villages; Brouilly, Cote de Brouilly and Regnie, then Chenas and Julienas slightly richer wines still; and Moulin-a-Vent and Morgon turn out full, firm wines that can be too tough to be totally enjoyable only 12 months after their harvest.
Fleurie had a good year in 1995 after a series of poor vintages. Superb value is the 1995 Flourie, Chateau des Deduits (pounds 7.99 Waitrose), a soft fragrant wine with intense fruit and savoury undertones. Nearly as good are the 1995 Fleurie, Cellier des Samsons (pounds 7.99 Marks & Spencer) and 1995 Fleurie, Chateau des Bachelards, Duboeuf (pounds 7.99 Majestic), with the soft 1995 Fleurie, Clos de la Chapelle des Bois, Verpoix (pounds 7.49 Asda) in reserve.
The village of Regnie always used to produce good Beaujolais-villages, and was promoted to 'cru' status in 1988. Two lovely ones, firmer than the Fleuries and with deliciously concentrated fruit flavours are 1995 Regnie, Domaine de la Plaigne, Gilles & Cecile Roux (pounds 7.15 Roger Harris) and 1995 Regnie, Domaine Aucoeur (pounds 7.05 Roger Harris). From Brouilly, southernmost of the cru villages, with the most vineyards, 1995 Brouilly, Thivin (pounds 7.65 Roger Harris) is good.
Many of the heavyweight cru wines of 1995, from Morgon and Moulin-a-Vent, are not yet ready to drink, though you could, if you like your wines on the tough side. These are wines that need to age for a couple of years, and that, unlike most Beaujolais, take on agreeable mature flavours. The locals have developed a verb for this maturing flavour-switch: 'morgonner'. It works for Moulin-a-Vent, too. Try it with 1995 Moulin-a-Vent, Hubert Lapierre (pounds 7.95 Roger Harris), a wonderful wine to tuck away for two to three years. The 1995 Morgon, Michel Jambon (pounds 6.49 Asda) also does the trick.
Roger Harris Wines (01603 880171).
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