Mindful of clean, fresh and lighter weight wines being more in fashion, this is the perfect time to get reacquainted with Beaujolais. It is one of France’s prettiest regions where steep mountains fall into a series of spurs interspersed with the famous villages whose names you see on the labels of the wines.

The Gamay grape reigns supreme here, turning out reds with light juicy flavours and just enough tannin and acidity to make them moreish and delicious. The grapes are grown on granitic and sandy soils, then fermented largely as whole, uncrushed berries to give Beaujolais wines their characteristic juiciness. Beaujolais comes in four levels: straight Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais Villages and ‘cru’ Beaujolais from ten named villages such as Fleurie and Morgon.

A resurgence of popularity for this delightful region, packed with very drinkable wines, is most welcome. It comes on the back of the outstanding 2009 vintage, and not only provides you with succulent, food-friendly wines, but also keeps the alcohol levels on the low end of the scale. These are reds with light juicy flavours and just enough tannin and acidity to make them moreish and delicious.

For easy drinking Beaujolais you can do no better than E Loron et Fils who have built an impressive new winery that is really helping the marked rise in the quality of their wines which we sell under the Charlet label. We have followed the Perroud family for many years; their Château Chassantour Beaujolais-Villages and Regnié, both from steep, south-east facing vineyards, are classic wines. You would do well to taste the Morgon from Laurent Guillet at Domaine de la Chaponne, a keen young grower with 11 hectares of old vines, grown on superb, steeply sloping sites. Fleurie is the best known of these cru villages whose vineyards occupy spurs that sweep down from a 3,000 foot mountain range. André Colonge’s son Serge makes a sturdy, quite structured example, while Jacky Janodet of Domaine des Fines Graves contributes with his silky but serious Moulin-à-Vent that benefits from a couple of years in bottle.

Robert Boutflower