France has an incredible reputation for its wines and even a lifetime spent learning about its regions and styles can be insufficient for truly understanding it. Perhaps that is part of its appeal, with different regions seeming to offer something distinctive.
From one village to another, there is enormous variety in wines in France and as our recent travels to Lyon showed us, the two relatively nearby regions Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhône are well worth exploring not just for anyone visiting the city but anyone with an interest in wine in general.
Beaujolais
Located to the north of Lyon and just south of Burgundy, Beaujolais is best known for its low-tannin red wines made using Gamay. With a light body and high acidity, Beaujolais tends to be easy-drinking and is commonly seen as a dining companion at relaxed evenings in bouchons. Despite being generally viewed as uncomplex by many in France, it has however gone on to become one of the most internationally renowned French regions.
Best known for its young wines that are typically drunk soon after maturing, Beaujolais is home to the Beaujolais Nouveau, its fruity, bubble gum wines that are sold and consumed just after harvest and released on the third Thursday of November – known as Beaujolais day. Lighter styles of Beaujolais are typically served chilled like white wines. However, there are different styles, including Beaujolais Superieur, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais, with these heavier styles being treated more like the heavy red wines of Burgundy. In short, it is a region with a reputation of producing easy-drinking low-tannin reds, but it can offer surprising complexity.
Côtes du Rhône
Running from the south of Lyon down to Provence, the Côtes du Rhône is an enormous wine region that follows the banks of the Rhône valley, an area that has been favoured for wine production since the arrival of the Greeks over 2,000 years ago. These wines generally feature red wine blends found throughout the south of France, such as Grenache and Syrah (its birthplace is in the northern Rhône). There are also white Côtes du Rhône wines, typically made using Grenache blanc. Côtes du Rhône wines tend to also be easy-drinking, although there are complex prestigious areas including Côte Rotie and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
If you prefer white wines and are in Lyon, try a wine from the Savoie region (often made using Jacquère, a fruity floral grape), close to the border with Switzerland.
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