Beaujolais

Beaujolais is one of the major wine regions of France, located just north of Lyon. When my family visited, we took a half-day guided tour of the region, focusing on two wineries. We entered the region around the mid-point and worked our way north. Our first stop was Vignoble Chanrion, a small, family-owned winery in the Côte de Brouilly sub-region of Beaujolais. The son walked us through the wine-making process starting with the hand-pruned vines and ending with the large oak barrels in the wine cellar. Then, we were able to taste seven wines, two whites and five reds. The reds were all the same type of grape (Gamay) but different years, so we were able to taste the difference through time. Despite the grape variety always being the same, there was a remarkable difference in each wine due to weather conditions and other factors changing each year. Côte de Brouilly--the name of the wine comes from the name of the region--is known for having an earthy taste due to the blue-green diorite rock in the soil around Mont Brouilly. In 2020, the winery won an award for this wine. The 2020 was my favorite of the group, as it really was possible to taste the award-winning depth of the wine, yet it didn't have as sharp of an aftertaste as many reds. We ended up buying a bottle of the 2022, which was almost as good but came without the more expensive price tag of the award-winner.

Our second stop was a more commercial winery, where we were able to taste wines from other Beaujolais sub-regions. This time, the wines were all from the same year, so the comparison was geographical, not chronological. We tried Saint-Amour, Chénas, Fleurie, Moulin à Vent, and Morgon, among one or two others. All the wines were reds, but each had a distinct taste, with some being more elegant (feminine) and others being deeper (masculine). The Chénas was my favorite, though it's considered to have more of an acquired taste; it's very oaky, which gave it a sort of pine tree aftertaste. Our guide also explained how Beaujolais wines are labeled. The wines from the south of the region are simply Beaujolais. The wines from the middle of the region are Beaujolais-Villages, which tend to be of a slightly higher quality. Finally, the northern wines have their own specific names, like the ones listed above, as they have the highest quality. Despite these specific names, all the wines are still considered Beaujolais--kind of like how all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

This weekend, USAC took a day trip to Beaujolais, but without the wine focus. We departed Lyon by bus around 9 a.m. and drove the roughly 40 minutes to Oingt, which is known as one of the most beautiful villages in France. As with many of the villages in Beaujolais, it's made of a local golden-yellow stone. We took a guided tour of the medieval part of the city, then stopped for crêpes. After that mid-morning snack, we hiked about forty minutes, past homes and fields of grape vines, to the more modern part of the city1. There, we were free for a late lunch. The entire program, including the directors, ironically ended up at the same Italian restaurant. The pizza there was delicious! Unfortunately, we were there during the town's lunch break, so most of the stores were closed. This meant I wasn't able to find a postcard for my collection.

Following lunch, we headed to the Château de Fléchère, which was once the country home of the mayor of Lyon. This castle, unlike many I've seen, had an actual moat! Our guide took us through the rooms, as well as the château's updates through the years. We began with the lord's apartments. The apartments contained four rooms. The first was the antechamber, or public receiving room; in the 17th century, the separation between public and private life was thinner, so certain important guests were admitted into the lord's chamber, whereas others had to stay in the antechamber. The second room was the lord's chamber, which acted as bedroom, dining room, and receiving room for certain guests. At meals, servants would bring the table into the room, set it up, and carry it away again after the meal. In French, they still say "mettre la table" ("put the table") to mean "set the table," because during this period the table literally had to be put into the room. The apartments also contained a smaller, even more private study and a dressing room. On the other side of the château, we saw a room that was used for public meetings of Protestants, who couldn't meet in churches the same way Catholics could, as France was a Catholic country. The walls were decorated with frescos done by the painter Pietro Ricchi, who stayed for a year to decorate the entire castle. In this room, the frescos were perspectives, meaning no matter were you stood in the room, the streets in the paintings would face you. Downstairs, we were able to see 18th century renovations, many of which were oriented toward greater privacy and warmth. The walls were wood-paneled or silk-covered instead of stone, the floors were parquet instead of tile, and the room sizes were smaller. In the downstairs bedroom, the bed was placed in an alcove and high off the floor, all to be warmer. The kitchen and other rooms for the servants were in the basement, at the bottom of a sloping tunnel that we accessed from outside. There was also a shadowy wine cellar that still had racks of wine in it. Following the tour, we were able to explore the gardens and meet the château's cat.

1. You might be wondering how it's possible to walk 40 minutes and still be in the same small village. Really, Oingt, or Val d'Oingt, is a commune, which is basically a municipality or small region. We essentially went to two different towns within this area, but as far as I could tell, they were both Oingt.