Vaux-en-Beaujolais

What we did:
- Arrived to the Lyon airport VERY early after walking through a very dark, dirty, and rainy Venice at 4am to catch our flight. We got our rental car and were quickly on the road! The French countryside is beautiful with quaint little towns and Medieval villages. We stopped in Val d’Oingt for some coffees and pastries. Known as one of the most beautiful towns in France, we definitely felt like we stepped into a quiet little French town straight out of a movie (especially after leaving the chaos of Italy). We tried our best French to order coffees and stopped at a local Boulangerie. Amazing croissants and quiche!
- We then drove to the small Medieval village named Ternand. We walked around the town, read up on the history provided by various signs, and hopped back in the car.
- We drove through beautiful rolling vineyards and hills, the vines and trees all starting to change for the fall. We made a little pit stop in the town of Chiroubles for a quick bite of local French cheeses and meats before heading to our first Beaujolais tasting!
- Our first tasting was at Christophe Savoy where we learned the basics about the Beaujolais and Burgundy wine regions. We tried 4 different of varieties of red Beaujolais wines - all delicious! Beaujolais wines are a little lighter and fruitier which we figured out isn’t necessarily Trent's favorite kind of wine. He liked the wines that were deeper and more full bodied.
- We then drove to our next tasting 10 minutes away. The directions were hard to figure out since it was a family run winery run out of their family home. Eventually Matthew, the son, flagged us down and we started on our private tour! Super interesting as the estate has been passed down and run by the family for multiple generations. Matthew is young and will takeover the business and was telling us about some of the new farming strategies and experimentation he is doing with the wine making process and how it paired well with his parents’ and grandparents’ wealth of experience. We tried one white wine, one rose, and three red ones. They also had the sweetest dog named Poppy running around - so cute! Overall super friendly guy, and since it was such a small tour he was happy to answer any and all questions we had. And we had a lot of them!
- We drove the rest of the way to the town of Beaune where we were staying the next few nights. Again, a beautifully and picturesque French countryside town! We headed to the central square and grabbed some dinner before going to bed early for more wine tasting the next day!

What we ate:
- Croissants, quiches, and coffees in Val d’Oingt at Votre Boulangerie
- Variety of French cheeses and meats at Cafe de Beaujolais
- Dinner at TOMA Bar a Vin. Trent got a pulled pork sandwich and Steph got beef Bourgogne. Topped it off with some burgundy wine and a molten lava cake! The pastries in France are unmatched. Our waiter had us try essential French Grappa as an after dinner digestive. Steph thought it was gross but Trent kind of liked it.

Fun facts:
- Beaujolais is much more regulated than the Burgundy wine region. The “Grande Cru” classification for Beaujolais has been closed for the last 8 years. Meaning that there can be no additional Grande Cru Beaujolais wines other than the ones that already exist. Classifications are all dependent on the soil and plot of land and must meet numerous criteria in order to sell the wine with the classification. Beaujolais wines in particular are capped at producing a maximum amount of wine every year and cannot exceed a specific amount based on the land that is owned and produces grapes.
- Climate change is impacting these wine regions heavily. Harvesting Beaujolais grapes used to take place in October, but in recent years most harvests have taken place in early September.
- Most of the wine producers in these regions are organic and focus on organic farming. There is a huge push in the industry for organic wines.
- The Beaujolais region produces Gamay grapes.Read more