Geography
The historical capital of the province is Beaujeu (Arpitan : Bôjor / Biôjœr) and the economic capital of the area is Villefranche-sur-Saône (Velafranche).
Beaujolais (French pronunciation: [boʒɔlɛ] ; Arpitan : Biôjolês) is a historical province and wine-producing region in France. It is located north of Lyon, and covers parts of the departments of Rhône and Saône-et-Loire. The region is known internationally for its long tradition of winemaking, and more recently for the Beaujolais nouveau.
The historical capital of the province is Beaujeu (Arpitan : Bôjor / Biôjœr) and the economic capital of the area is Villefranche-sur-Saône (Velafranche).
Almost all the wine produced in the region is red wine from the Gamay grape, of which the heavily marketed Beaujolais Nouveau is the most well-known, and the village crus the most prized.
46°05′N04°40′E / 46.083°N 4.667°E
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Franche-Comté is a cultural and historical region of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and the Territoire de Belfort. In 2021, its population was 1,179,601.
Rhône is a French department located in the east-central administrative region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Rhône, its prefecture is Lyon. Its sole subprefecture is Villefranche-sur-Saône. Including the Lyon Metropolis, it had a population of 1,875,747 in 2019.
Burgundy is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The capital, Dijon, was wealthy and powerful, being a major European centre of art and science, and of Western Monasticism. In early Modern Europe, Burgundy was a focal point of courtly culture that set the fashion for European royal houses and their court. The Duchy of Burgundy was a key in the transformation of the Middle Ages towards early modern Europe.
Jura is a department in the eastern French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The department takes its name from the Jura Mountains. Its prefecture is Lons-le-Saunier; subprefectures are Dole and Saint-Claude. In 2019, Jura had a population of 259,199. Its INSEE code is 39. It has a short portion of the border of Switzerland.
Rhône-Alpes was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône and the Alps mountain range. Its capital, Lyon, is the second-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris. Rhône-Alpes has the sixth-largest economy of any European region.
Beaujolais is a French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) wine generally made of the Gamay grape, which has a thin skin and is low in tannins. Like most AOC wines they are not labeled varietally. Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made mostly with Chardonnay grapes though Aligoté is also permitted until 2024. Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity. In some vintages, Beaujolais produces more wine than the Burgundy wine regions of Chablis, Côte d'Or, Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais put together.
Georges Duboeuf was a French wine merchant, and the founder of Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, one of the largest wine merchants in France. The company is known for its popularization and production of Beaujolais wines, leading to Duboeuf's nicknames of le roi du Beaujolais or sometimes pape du Beaujolais.
Carbonic maceration is a winemaking technique, often associated with the French wine region of Beaujolais, in which whole grapes are fermented in a carbon dioxide rich environment before crushing. Conventional alcoholic fermentation involves crushing the grapes to free the juice and pulp from the skin with yeast serving to convert sugar into ethanol. Carbonic maceration ferments most of the juice while it is still inside the grape, although grapes at the bottom of the vessel are crushed by gravity and undergo conventional fermentation. The resulting wine is fruity with very low tannins. It is ready to drink quickly but lacks the structure for long-term aging. In extreme cases such as Beaujolais nouveau, the period between picking and bottling can be less than six weeks.
Beaujeu is a commune of the Rhône department in eastern France. It lies southwest of Mâcon and northwest of Lyon, on the river Ardière.
Beaujolais nouveau is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is a vin de primeur, fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November. Distributors famously race to get the first bottles to different global markets.
The Mâconnais district is located in the south of the Burgundy wine region in France, west of the Saône river. It takes its name from the town of Mâcon. It is best known as a source of good value white wines made from the Chardonnay grape; the wines from Pouilly-Fuissé are particularly sought-after. Almost all the wine made in the Mâconnais is white wine. Chardonnay is the main grape grown in the district—in fact, there is a village of that name in the far north of the region. Some plantations of Gamay and Pinot noir are made into red and rosé Mâcon, making up no more than 30% of the total wine production. Gamay is grown in the Beaujolais cru of Moulin-à-Vent, which extends into the Mâconnais, but has little in common with the wines north of the border.
Villefranche-sur-Saône is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.
The arrondissement of Villefranche-sur-Saône is an arrondissement of France in the Rhône department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It has 132 communes. Its population is 250,492 (2016), and its area is 1,714.6 km2 (662.0 sq mi).
French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and American wine-producing regions. French wine traces its history to the 6th century BCE, with many of France's regions dating their wine-making history to Roman times. The wines produced range from expensive wines sold internationally to modest wines usually only seen within France such as the Margnat wines of the post-war period.
Mercurey is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France.
Ville-sur-Jarnioux is a small village and commune in eastern France. It is situated in the hills of the Beaujolais wine-growing countryside in the Rhône department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Vino novello, Italian for 'young wine', is a light, fruity, red wine produced throughout Italy. Novello is similar to its French cousin Beaujolais nouveau in taste, body and color, but is produced using several grape varieties with a more liberal fermentation process. While historically released for sale on November 6, Novello is since 2012 available on 30 October.
Coteaux du Lyonnais is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for wine in central-southeastern France. This wine-growing area is located on the slopes of the Monts du Lyonnais, a mountain range to the west of Lyon and in the eastern part of Massif Central.
Lyonnaise cuisine refers to cooking traditions and practices centering on the area around the French city of Lyon and historical Lyonnais culinary traditions.
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is a region in southeast-central France created by the 2014 territorial reform of French regions; it resulted from the merger of Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes. The new region came into effect on 1 January 2016, after the regional elections in December 2015.
