Best Beaujolais Wines: Five Bottles to Try

The best Beaujolais wines show just how much range there is within a region too often reduced to one light, youthful style. Gamay can make everything from bright, juicy Beaujolais-Villages to fragrant cru wines and deeper, structured bottles that develop for years. These five wines from our range give you a useful route through those different styles.

If you want to understand the region first, including Gamay, Beaujolais-Villages and the ten crus, read our guide to Beaujolais wine.

How did we choose these five wines?

This is not intended as a league table. The point is to show the range of styles available and help you find the bottle that suits you. We have started with an approachable Beaujolais-Villages, moved through lighter and more structured crus, and finished with an old-vine wine that shows how serious Gamay can become.

Producer and vineyard matter as much as the name of the appellation. The wines below come from independent growers we know, with different approaches and different sites. Price matters too: there is little point recommending five bottles that all occupy the same part of the range.

Where should I start with Beaujolais?

Famille Descombe's Granite is a good place to start. It is Beaujolais-Villages rather than one of the ten crus, with juicy red and black berry fruit, fresh acidity and fine tannins. At £15.50 it gives you the bright, straightforward appeal of Gamay without reducing the region to something simple or sweet.

The fruit comes from hillside vineyards where the soils move towards the granite and sand found further north. Try this if you want an uncomplicated red with plenty of freshness, or if you are buying Beaujolais for the first time. It is also a useful house red: light enough to drink without food but with enough freshness and fruit to work with a wide range of meals.

What if I want something lighter and more fragrant?

Chiroubles sits at the lighter, more fragrant end of Cru Beaujolais, and Benjamin Passot's Cercillons is a good example. Raspberry, wild strawberry and red cherry are joined by violet and peony, with bright acidity and silky tannins.

Benjamin trained in Burgundy before establishing his own estate near Juliénas in 2017. The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented with native yeasts. This is the bottle to choose if you like fragrant reds with freshness rather than weight. Serve it slightly cool. It is a particularly good introduction to cru wines because the step up in character is obvious without the wine becoming heavier.

What does classic Cru Beaujolais offer?

Les Capitans comes from Juliénas and moves things up a step in structure. Made from forty-year-old Gamay vines, it has ripe red fruit and floral notes alongside firmer, ripe tannins.

The parcel lies between Saint-Amour and the village of Juliénas. It is a useful bottle if you want to see what the cru system brings: more individual character and structure, while retaining the freshness that makes Gamay so appealing. Domaine Bel Avenir is the family estate of Cécile and Alain Dardanelli, whose wines we import directly.

Choose Les Capitans when you want a red with a little more grip and presence than Chiroubles, but still with plenty of fruit. It works well when the wine needs to hold its own alongside roast meat, sausages or richer mushroom dishes.

What if I want a more distinctive cru?

Chénas is the smallest of the ten Beaujolais crus. Au Bois Retour comes from five hectares of east-facing slopes at 300–400 metres, on granite and quartz soils. The wine combines black fruit, peony and spice with silky tannins and mineral freshness.

It also introduces one of the more interesting producer stories in our range. After selling Maison Piron in 2020, Dominique Piron retained the family's historic vineyards and created Domaine du Vieux Bourg in 2021, returning his focus to the vineyard and individual sites. Choose this if you want to explore beyond the better-known cru names.

Chénas is a useful next step if you already know Fleurie or Morgon and want to see another side of the region. Au Bois Retour has enough structure to reward slower drinking, but the tannins remain supple rather than hard.

Can Beaujolais be deep and structured?

Very much so. Cuvée 85.45 is deliberately far removed from the light style many people associate with the region. Domaine de Mont Joly makes it in small quantities from Gamay vines between 75 and 100 years old around Blacé, then gives it around 21 months in oak.

The result is deep and structured, with black fruit, liquorice, coffee, integrated tannins and a long savoury finish. At £31.50 it is also a useful reminder that Gamay is capable of wines intended for slower drinking and further development. If your idea of Beaujolais begins and ends with Nouveau, this is the bottle that most decisively challenges it.

Of these five, this is the one to choose if you normally drink fuller reds and are sceptical that Gamay will offer enough depth. It is not the obvious starting point for the region, but it shows why the best Beaujolais wines should not be judged by weight or simplicity alone.

Which Beaujolais should I choose?

If you are completely new to the region, start with Famille Descombe Granite Beaujolais-Villages. It gives you fresh fruit, fine tannins and a clear sense of Gamay without asking too much of either your palate or your wallet.

If fragrance and lightness matter most, choose Benjamin Passot Cercillons Chiroubles. If you want more structure while keeping the classic red-fruit character, move to Domaine Bel Avenir Les Capitans Juliénas.

Clos du Vieux Bourg Au Bois Retour Chénas is the choice for someone who already knows the obvious cru names and wants something more distinctive. For maximum depth and concentration, Domaine de Mont Joly Cuvée 85.45 sits at the other end of the scale from simple young Gamay.

There is no single bottle that defines the region. The best choice depends on whether you value fragrance, freshness, structure or depth, which is precisely why trying wines from different villages and growers is worthwhile.

How should I serve these wines?

Most Gamay benefits from being served a little cooler than a typical full-bodied red. Around 13–15°C works well for the lighter bottles, so twenty minutes in the fridge can help if the wine has been sitting at room temperature. The deeper Cuvée 85.45 can be served a little warmer.

The lighter wines are good with charcuterie, roast chicken, pork and simple mushroom dishes. As the wines become more structured, they can handle duck, sausages and richer meat dishes. None of them needs to be kept for a special occasion.

Should I drink them now or keep them?

Granite and Cercillons are primarily about freshness and are good choices to drink now. Les Capitans and Au Bois Retour have more structure and can develop further, although there is no need to wait. Cuvée 85.45 is the most obviously ageworthy of the five and has the concentration to continue developing in bottle.

That progression is part of what makes the best Beaujolais wines interesting: the region can provide uncomplicated bottles for tonight as well as more serious wines worth following over time.

There is much more to explore beyond these five bottles. Browse our full Beaujolais range, or read our Beaujolais guide for more on Gamay, the classifications and the ten crus.