Baronne du Chatelard Beaujolais Blanc AOP 2011

Who has ever heard of Beaujolais Blanc, well I have because I have studied wine? However, up until two weeks ago I had never tasted it. I visit France regularly and we have family in the Champagne region and in Burgundy and no one has ever opened a bottle of Beaujolais Blanc.

Beaujolais is of course in Burgundy but to all intents and purposes, and from a wine point of view, it is a separate wine region which produces enormous quantities of  wine, 98% of which is red wine from the Gamay grape. Beaujolais Blanc is produced mainly from the Chardonnay grape with small quantities of Aligoté.

Beaujolais Blanc is produced from grapes grown in a mixture of limestone, schist and granite soils in contrast to Bourgogne (Burgundy) Blanc which produced  from entirely limestone based soil. The climate is warmer in Beaujolais so this affects the growth of the grapes. The terroir in Beaujolais is different and you can taste this difference.

Many people recommend that you should drink Beaujolais within 3 to 4 years of its production. Our wine was 9 years old and it was still going strong. The wine won a gold medal at the 2012 "Concours des Grands Vins" in Macon. The Baronne du Chatelard produce their wine from limestone which has chalky white stones embedded in the soil. Soil, which is perfect for growing Chardonnay grapes, nothing it seems is simple in the wine growing world. We drank our wine with a roast chicken dish and it is wine to be savoured rather than slugging back.

Our bottle of wine was superb and had all the qualities of excellent dry white wine, it was finely balanced for acidity and fruitiness. I fancied that it was of fuller body than its Burgundian cousins from further north and especially when compared to Chablis. It was full of fruit flavour but it was not jammy. For me, it had a flavour of bananas, but my wife thought I was imagining it. I can still taste the wine in that imagination.

The next time I am in France I shall be searching out  Beaujolais Blanc; I have never seen it on the shelves in the UK. You can buy Baronne du Chatelard Beaujolais Blanc AOP on the internet for about £19 a bottle. A little expensive perhaps but I bet it is worth every penny.

https://www.chateauduchatelard.com/en/bar

https://www.99wines.co.uk/wines/Baronne_du_Chatelard__Pouilly-fuiss_.html#SID=200

Dry January

Trend-setters are trying to convince wine drinkers not to drink alcohol for the whole of January. I shall not be doing this.

No alcohol passed my lips on New Year's eve or New Year's day.This was not out of any desire "to go on the wagon". I simply did not feel like drinking even though my wife had prepared some excellent food. Usually, I enjoy a glass of wine with good food and I shall continue to do so.

If ever I felt the need to give up alcohol for a month because I was drinking too much then I would give up permanently. I like a glass of wine with my food so much that I shall ensure that alcohol will never damage my health. This means that for 2 or 3 days a week I drink no alcohol at all and for the remaining 4 days I moderate my drinking. Yesterday, at a birthday party I went a bit over the top for a change but I woke up with a clear head and conscience and no feelings of guilt as I was not drunk.

I shall ignore trend-setters and well being experts and the blandishments of the National Health Service. I shall make may own decisions about how much I drink.

I do not need multi-juices to clear my system; a couple of glasses of water will do the trick and it's much cheaper.