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The Laurent Perrachon Beaujolais Villages 2020 is sourced from vineyards surrounding two small towns, La Chapelle de Guinchay (70%) and Lancié. One village has sandy soils and granite the other has clay and limestone. The villages are not far apart but offer very different soil. The grape is 100% Gamay.
Beaujolais is located just south of Burgundy, while Champagne is just north of Burgundy. Champagne and Burgundy tend to feature expensive wines, while Beaujolais is more affordable. The hierarchy of Beaujolais wines is wine simply labeled Beaujolais AOC which is sourced from anywhere inside the region’s borders. Next up is Beaujolais Villages AOC. There are 39 villages or towns where the surrounding vineyards, here two villages are used. The top tier is Cru Beaujolais which is sourced from 10 elite growing areas.
The Laurent Perrachon Beaujolais Villages 2020 is produced by a winery that was founded in 1877 and is currently operated by the 5th and 6th generations of the Perrachon family. They produce six Cru wines and this bottling is their affordable middle-of-the-pack wine. The vines averaged 45 years old, and the grapes were hand-picked and placed in the stainless steel vats in whole clusters. They used semi-carbonic maceration instead of fermentation.
Carbonic Maceration is where the grapes are added to the fermentation tank not by crushing or pressing, and the weight of the grapes in the tank releases the juice. The yeast on the skins of the grapes starts the fermentation. This technique is typical in high-end Beaujolais wines. This wine is not oak-aged and the alcohol content is 12.5%.
The Laurent Perrachon Beaujolais Villages 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a raspberry jam red with black highlights. The nose is nose dominated by cherries, blackberries, and raspberries. The Laurent Perrachon Beaujolais Villages 2020 is a lean, sleek, smooth wine with a subtle, balanced fruit flavor.
This Beaujolais Villages tastes like blackberry, black cherry, tea, licorice, and black pepper. The mid-palate offers strawberries, hard-edged spice, and dried blueberries. The wine has an excellent structure there is a firm edge to this wine, even though Gamay has very low tannins.
The Summary
- The Laurent Perrachon Beaujolais Villages 2020 is an excellent wine for the money, I found it for $11.99, and it is a very French wine. With a few sips, you can tell it is a French wine.
- Some of the more prominent importers of Beaujolais can bring in wine more tailored to American tastes, which is not necessarily bad. But I prefer my French wines to taste French.
