Things to Love

Harvest has just started in California. When some of the state’s winemakers were asked what’s best about harvest, here are a few things they said:

The smell of fermentation
Camaraderie
Breakfast burritos
Seeing the sun rise over a vineyard
Cold beer
Avocados
Spicy Cheetos
Chocolate
Knowing there’s an end…

What are Cru Beaujolais?

A. Beaujolais from the best single vineyards

B. Beaujolais that are aged for at least a year in French oak

C. Beaujolais from selected villages

D. Beaujolais from what historically have been the top producers (the “cru”)

Cru Beaujolais refers to wines from ten distinguished villages. (Interestingly enough, in most of the rest of France, the word cru refers to a vineyard.) Most of these villages are in the north of the region on steep granite hills. Cru wines are deeper, denser, more structured and more age-worthy than regular Beaujolais. The ten Cru are: St.-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Régnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Although Beaujolais Nouveau will be released next Thursday, we recommend you drink the far better Cru Beaujolais to celebrate the region.

“I look forward to the day when more rosés achieve that ‘wow’ factor now given only to great reds and whites; to when restaurant wine lists for reds and whites are rivaled by their selection of rosés.”

—Elizabeth Gabay, MW, author of Rosé: Understanding the Pink Wine Revolution

Things to Love

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