Beaujolais aims to treble its white wine production

eaujolais appellation white wines are still very much under-the-radar and yet its production specifications featuring single varietal Chardonnay are among some of the oldest. “The appellation decree dates back to 1930. White Beaujolais therefore has a long history, but not enough people know about it”, confirmed Sébastien Kargul, vice-chairman of the Beaujolais wine marketing board Inter Beaujolais, at a presentation during Wine Paris. “Beaujolais Nouveau’s past firepower in export markets meant that you couldn’t see the wood for the trees, hiding our diversity”, was the metaphor used by Inter Beaujolais chairman Jean-Marc Lafont.

With Gamay holding a long-standing, prominent position and Burgundy so nearby, development of Beaujolais white wines has never experienced the uplift that marketing board representatives are now aiming for. “Low production volumes of just 20 to 25,000 hectolitres out of a total 593,000 hl of Beaujolais in 2024 need to be promoted during the vineyard restructuring process so that, if possible, they can be increased three-fold over the next 5 to 10 years and reach 75,000 hl. Even at that level, production would still be on a boutique scale”, added Kargul.

As a producer of white Beaujolais at his own winery, Lafont regularly gauges interest in the colour across his markets, particularly overseas. “This is all the more relevant because we are not strong enough in export markets which only account for around 30% of our appellation volumes”, he stressed. In fact, exports dropped by 5% in volume and value over the last financial year, even though the United States and the United Kingdom remained stable and jointly generate half of Beaujolais export volumes.