A tasting in Beaujolais

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A tasting in Beaujolais

Vines in the Rhone

A tasting in the Rhone

The vineyards of Beaujolais

Walking in the Rhone

Northern Rhone & Beaujolais Crus Walk

7 - 13 September 2008

There is something iconic about walking whole Beaujolais Crus, Brouilly, Côte de Brouilly, Régnié, Morgon, Chiroubles, Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, Chénas, Juliénas and St Amour, and tasting each in turn!

The walk starts in the northerly Cru, St Amour and from here goes to Juliénas, where we taste achitypical wines with M. Pelletier. We continue through the vineyards and woods of Chénas, stopping for a picnic. We’ll see the famous windmill of Moulin-à-Vent then finish the day with a great tasting of Fleurie and Moulin-à-Vent with Domaine Monrozier. The Fleurie here is delightful, and a little weightier than some as it comes from warm vineyards at the bottom of the hill.

Next day, from the woods at the top of the vineyards, we work our way down through the high slopes of Chiroubles. We will have a quick tasting here of these light and highly aromatic wines then continue down to Morgon. We enjoy tasting spicy, meaty and rich Morgon with the excellent Domaine Pillets.

In the afternoon we continue on to Régnié. We complete the Beaujolais crus by our walk over the top of Mont Brouilly and tasting Brouilly and Côte de Brouilly with Domaine Thivin. We enjoy lunch here too.
We then transfer from the vineyards of the Beaujolais, which are just north of Lyons, to the great vineyards of the Northern Rhône which are just south of the city.

Tain l’Hermitage is our base for the last three nights, situated on the banks of the Rhône River and lying below the mighty hill of Hermitage. We walk and at times scrabble up the Hermitage
hill to see the view at the top. There is a way round or you can opt out, as we have a Hermitage tasting after this back in the village. In the afternoon we cover the low undulating hills of Crozes-Hermitage.

We will taste St Joseph and Cornas wines too during our stay. We have a full day to explore the Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu appellation vineyards with a walk through the woods and valleys that separate them. There will be visits to leading growers in both Condrieu and Ampuis.