Beaujolais 2023 En Primeur

2023 was, to most growers, the best recent vintage since covid. Perfect growing season, good healthy grapes and decent yields. Great balance in the wines, and ageworthy too in many cases. For Louis Boillot, and his son/winemaker Clément, 2023 had the potential for a very big harvest so they did a heavy ‘green harvest’, to reduce yield. In that respect, this was a ‘normal’ sized vintage and Louis reckons they could be the best selection of Beaujolais they have produced to date.
 
The big talking point is the proposal for Beaujolais Cru to have 1er cru vineyards (currently mostly given on labels as ‘lieu-dits’) which will cause some confusion, and there will be winners and losers. The winners will get the recognition of their top wines coming from the best sites. The losers will be those who make good wine but, like Laurent Guillet, have vineyards attached to, but not in, the proposed 1er cru sites. Morgon’s Cote de Py is currently 120 ha, but the authorities have decided it will only be 30 ha. Ouch.