This week’s dream: France’s forgotten wine region

Other parts of France “offer a pompous face to the world”; Beaujolais “throws open its arms,” said Bruce Schoenfeld in National Geographic Traveler. This region of quaint villages and gentle hills that lies between the Loire and Rhône rivers was mostly overlooked when a wine-tourism boom swept through places like Bordeaux in the 1990s. But Beaujolais has been gaining in popularity in recent years, and it’s easy to see why. The locals are friendly, the scenery is “soft like a watercolor,” and the wine—greatly improved in recent years—enchants.

Beaujolais doesn’t go in big for organized tourism. Visitors can jaunt from winery to winery by following the maps and signs for a so-called Beaujolais wine route, but the route takes such a labyrinthine course that I chose to improvise. Driving past a landscape of tall pines “that make the Alps feel not so distant,” I arrived at the village of Juliénas at 10:30 in the morning to find a bar where three local men were already sipping the village’s violet-scented wine. Urged to join them, I was soon chatting easily with my merry new friends despite my limited French. At Chiroubles, my next stop, I stumbled upon a Fête des Conscrits, a uniquely Beaujolais event in which all villagers born during a year that shares the last digit of the current year throw their neighbors a party. At this “decidedly informal” festival, there were no rides, speeches, or paid entertainment. Instead, everyone enjoyed the simple pleasure of mingling and chatting.

The late Marcel Lapierre did more than anyone to launch the recent renaissance of Beaujolais wine. His widow and adult children agreed to dine with me, and chose Le Pré du Plat, a bright, modern restaurant in Cercié where I enjoyed a simple meal that ranked “among the best I’ve had.” Marcel’s son Mathieu later led me back to the family winery and in a charming courtyard, poured me a glass of 2009 Morgon—the last his father had made. I wanted to tell Mathieu that it was the best Beaujolais I had ever tasted, but he silenced me with a hand gesture. He didn’t want me to analyze—just savor.

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At Château de la Barge, in Mâcon (chateaudelabarge.fr), doubles start at $159.