The <i> Real </i> Beaujolais Season

When I heard that the 1993 Beaujolais were soon to arrive in the United States, I mentioned it to a friend.

“Didn’t we drink the Beaujolais last November?” he asked. It took a moment to realize the significance of his response, and how it indicates bad things for lovers of true Beaujolais.

My friend remembered drinking Beaujolais Nouveau, the fragrant new wine of the vintage, the vin de l’annee , which comes to market each fall. French law prohibits the shipping of it until the third Thursday of November. About 20 years ago, some shippers began the “race to Paris,” using all sorts of stunts. At precisely midnight, a plane would take off from Beaujolais and the stuff would be parachuted onto the Left Bank; a jet would take it to London for a Friday brunch; horse carts would deliver it; scuba divers were used.

It was great fun, great silliness--and it all left true Beaujolais lovers with a sick stomach. That’s because people began to get the impression that Beaujolais is only sold in November, that it must be consumed by Christmas, and that any Beaujolais still around in March is “old” wine and unfit to drink.

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True Beaujolais--by far the majority of all Beaujolais made--is a better wine because it is treated with more care than is Beaujolais Nouveau. But with most Americans assuming that all Beaujolais must be drunk fast, the finer wines coming into the country in February and March will be overlooked.

But Steve Gilbertson, wine buyer for the Henry Wine Group, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., says the future could be bright.

“Beaujolais, real Beaujolais, is a light red wine that has good fruit, so it goes with almost any food,” he says. “If someone wants to know what kind of wine Americans will be drinking in the middle of the 21st Century, this is it. It’s what the French drink.”

All this at an affordable price (less than $10 for almost everything).

It is to real Beaujolais, not Nouveau, that Michael Buller dedicated his new book, “The Winemaker’s Year in Beaujolais” (Thames & Hudson Inc. publishers, $35, 142 pages). It is a full-color treatment of this colorful countryside, a loving paean to the people and the lighthearted wine of the region.

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The book has stories and profiles of the people, and one man accorded much space is Georges Duboeuf, called the king of Beaujolais, a man who has done as much as anyone to popularize Beaujolais in all of its forms in the United States.

The book doesn’t say so, but it was Duboeuf’s system of making Beaujolais that led to a revolution in the quality of the wine of the region, and today Duboeuf’s Beaujolais are nearly everywhere, always of high quality.

Duboeuf toured the United States recently to publicize the release of the 1993 Beaujolais, which will soon hit our shores. The wines are, as usual, quite good; they are, as usual, reasonably priced, and they will, as usual, be pretty much overlooked.

Beaujolais can be a delightful quaff, served cold or nearly so, and vintage considerations rarely are a factor. The idea is to drink something fruity and tasty. Tasting Duboeuf’s nearly ubiquitous 1993 Beaujolais-Villages ($6.50), I was impressed by the richness and cherry/strawberry aroma, an excellent wine for the price.

Yet to prove that even his 1993 Beaujolais-Nouveau ($5), released last November, retains fruit, he poured a glass of it, too. The wine was excellent and was just a bit less weighty than the Villages. Still available in some shops, it’s a bargain.

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But while this smallish, graying, indefatigable man might well have rested on Beaujolais, he also saw potential in some lesser regions. And in the last three years he has marketed a wide line of wines at very modest prices, some from varieties traditional to the Rhone Valley (such as Grenache and Syrah), which he buys from areas such as Ardeche and the Languedoc. These warmer regions once made wines that could be described as a demi , only half-done. However, modern winegrowing methods and more precise winemaking have meant far better wine from these places, and today Duboeuf pins high hopes on them to make excellent quality, low-priced wines.

With total production of more than 1.4 million cases of wine, Duboeuf operates as a negociant , buying wines made by others and blending them. To do this he uses a network of brokers who seek out wines that measure up to Duboeuf’s demands.

One wine Duboeuf buys from a single producer and refines in his cellars is the 1992 Cotes de Luberon from Domaine Baron de Brunay ($5). It has a light, fragrant aroma of black cherry and pepper and a soft, appealing taste. The blend is 80% Grenache and the remainder Syrah, an excellent value for lovers of the Rhone-type wines.

Duboeuf doesn’t mind a challenge, either. He thinks one of the more exasperating grapes of the Rhone, the shy-bearing, frustratingly erratic Viognier, has a big future in international markets, so he has planted 270 acres of the variety in the Ardeche. His first vintage of Viognier, from 1993, will arrive in the United States in a few months. Price hasn’t yet been set, but it will sell for less than $10 a bottle.

And as if the traditional varieties weren’t enough for him, Duboeuf is also introducing the United States to a wine from a new grape variety.

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The 100% varietal 1993 Chasan ($5) is made from a grape that is a cross between Chardonnay and Listan, which is another name for the Spanish grape Palomino--a neutral variety mostly used as a base for Sherry. The 1993 Chasan, a low-acid wine, is slightly spicy (like Muscat), but mostly has a honeysuckle sort of aroma and soft, clean taste. It is an unpretentious wine that works well with simple foods.

Despite his foray into other areas, Duboeuf is ultimately committed to Beaujolais and his top-of-the-line version, Moulin-a-Vent. The 1991 vintage ($11) is “like Bourgogne,” he says as I sniff and find more depth than I had anticipated. The wine is not a Beaujolais in the traditional sense of the word but deeper, darker, richer and in need of time in the bottle.

“Another year, maybe two,” says Duboeuf.

“Maybe another five?” I ask.

Duboeuf merely smiles.

Wine of the Week

1991 La Crema Pinot Noir “Reserve” ($7)-- The wine was recently selling for $22.50 (occasionally discounted to $18), but various changes in the brand have caused this vintage of the La Crema Pinot Noir to be closed out. Some retail locations offer it for even less. The wine is spectacular, with an earthy/cherry sort of aroma, deep and powerful fruit, and a racy, spiced aftertaste.

The La Crema name is a checkered one, starting with the founding of the La Crema Vinera brand in 1979 in a commercial warehouse in Petaluma in southern Sonoma County. The first winemaker was experiment-minded Rod Berglund (who now makes the wines at Joseph Swan Vineyards). Some of the early wines were exceptional. The brand was sold in 1986 to Jason Korman, after which it had a succession of winemakers. Last year the brand was sold again, to fast-moving Kendall-Jackson Winery, now based in Santa Rosa in Sonoma County.

At that time, the wine was still at the winery, and winemaker Dan Goldfield felt it was one of his best. However, Kendall-Jackson owner Jess Jackson has plans for the La Crema label, so he sought to sell off the remaining 1991 inventory as quickly as possible. Thus this low price. The fruit comes from Russian River Vineyards and the wine was aged in French oak barrels. A non-reserve bottling, at $4.99, is a nicely made and well-structured wine that’s also a bargain, but the Reserve bottling is a steal at this price.