Beaujolais Producers - light and “crunchy” red fruits

I saw a similar thread about red fruited burgundy. What would you say are producers that produce lighter, more red fruited wines in Beaujolais? I’m not particularly interested in the deeper darker fruited representations of the Gamay variety.

Thanks!

I always find Foillard Cote du Py and Corcellette to be red fruited. Even in vintages when the vintage is on the warmer side. The crunch factor in my opinion is also a vintage variable. Usually the more classic vintages have the crunchier fruit characteristics

The 2015 Lapierre Morgon I’m having tonight is certainly red fruited.

Haven’t had this in a while, but it would be the absolute last bottle of Bojo that I would be associating with crunchy red fruits. The 2015 is on the extremely ripe side of the spectrum. Maybe in cooler vintages, but even then there are better candidates.

Metras.

Pay attention to the vintage as well. We have some pretty ripe ones recently, especially 2018 and 2015. Go for 2016 and 2014.

Well, he said red fruited, not crunchy and, I expect that was intentional. Few 2015 Beaujolais are crunchy.

What do you mean? The thread is about light and crunchy red-fruited Bojos, right from the topic.

Julien Sunier fleurie from most vintages. A lot of Foillard’s wines fall into that category. Anne Sophie Dubois is another producer that scratches that itch for me.

Jean-Paul Brun leans toward crunchy. So does Julien Guillot.

And I would avoid 2015 vintage across the board if looking for light and crunchy, regardless of producer.

Julie Balagny. A bottle of 2016 Fleurie En Remont remains the best bottle of Beajolais I’ve had - incredibly light and ethereal but with lots of wonderful candied red fruit. Jean-Louis Dutraive is also pretty solid but I haven’t liked his wines from warmer vintages (2015).

Ted Vance has a good article about Beaujolais worth reading: Beaujolais in Context - The Source

J-P Brun can certainly be crunchy and makes some of the loveliest Bojos out there, but they are definitely darker-toned and more Burgundian in style. Although they aren’t big or extracted wines, I myself wouldn’t place them in the light, red-fruited end of the spectrum.

But still definitely lovely wines worth checking out.

Definitely this. 2017 seems to be quite a bit in a similar vein. Haven’t had any 2018 yet.

I think it depends on the year and the site. I don’t link crunchy and red fruit to full-on carbonic maceration but it could be in the OP’s view - that’s unstated.

I’m also not sure why Burgundian and crunchy red fruit would be mutually exclusive. Some of the best Burgundies are crunchy and red fruited.

I do agree that it can depend on the year and the site (for example the Fleurie is in many vintages dead-serious stuff, but also wonderfully mineral, red-toned and crunchy), but Brun’s style is at least in my books more about very sturdy, brooding and tightly-knit stuff than light, crunchy and smashable.

The thing about Burgundy (or “Burgundian”) vs. Gamay is that at least to me Gamay can be more muscular and darker-toned if Pinot Noir and Gamay are vinified in the same way. Most likely if Gamay was made like some of the best Burgundies, they would be less crunchy and red-fruited. However, that is just extrapolation from the styles made by the best Bojo producers making wines in a traditional, “Burgundian” fashion.

Chavannes Côte de Brouilly “Ambassades” perhaps?

I would try the Chateau des Jacques from Jadot, their elevate is same as Burgundy, no carbonic maceration. They take forever to age but remind more of Savigny or Pernand Verglesses.

I like the Foillard wines for this. Also Dominique Piron wines. And the Cheysson Chiroubles.

In general I would be more likely to take a flyer on the communes of Chiroubles, Cote de Puy, and Chenas.

Guy Breton, who made very delicate, fragrant, fine-boned wines even in the 2018 vintage, is a name that should be mentioned! Métras’ generic Beaujolais bottlings, too.

But as others have observed, it’s hard to entirely efface vintage variation, and warmer, ripe years are always going to make their mark. The better 2018 Beaujolais, for example, are more “fleshy and succulent” than “light and crunchy”; and in 2015, you’re lucky if the wines limit themselves to “rich and muscular”.

Vintage is more important than producer for this. Buy well stored '11s and '14s if you can find them, then hope for another classic vintage, which I don’t think Beajolais has had since then.