Inter Beaujolais, the Beaujolais wine council, is a private organisation recognised by the French government, bringing together partners from the winegrowing industry, upstream and down. The scope of Inter Beaujolais activities covers wines produced within the perimeter of the area of the 12 Beaujolais AOCs: Brouilly, Chénas, Côte de Brouilly, Chiroubles Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour (the 10 Beaujolais crus) as well as Beaujolais & Beaujolais-Villages that come in three colours.
The council’s missions
The Councils roles and missions contribute to the harmonious development of the Beaujolais wine industry. Its main missions are:
- promoting wines on markets via collective initiatives
- conducting research work and trials
- providing and transmitting transparent economic data
- organising and standardising professional relations and practices in use.
Our communication strategy
In January 2017, Inter Beaujolais entitled its ten-year roadmap “Beaujolais Nouvelle Génération” and set the objective of gradually repositioning the wines that its vineyards had to offer. First of all, by communicating about three distinct, complementary worlds of Beaujolais wine:
- Festive Beaujolais: a heritage to be strengthened and boosted
- Expressive Beaujolais: our new positioning base
- Exceptional Beaujolais: our new big challenge
Secondly, by calling for the diversification of the Beaujolais production (over 95% red) within each of those three worlds, via the development of Festive and Expressive Beaujolais Rosés (short-term challenge), as well as Expressive and Exceptional Beaujolais whites (mid- and long-term challange).
Research work aimed at the vineyard’s move upmarket
From 2009 to 2018, at the Inter Beaujolais council’s request, a terroir characterisation survey was conducted by SIGALES, a soil mapping agency. After more than 15,000 soil surveys, nearly 1000 soil pits and 50 field visits, the analyses made it possible to map the Beaujolais vineyard. Winegrowers and négociants are taking advantage of the soil characterisation to highlight the terroirs in plot-by-plot cuvées. In April 2018, recognition of the outstanding geology led to the “UNESCO Global Geopark” label. Consequently, the Beaujolais vineyard became the 7th Geopark in France.
The terroir characterisation supplements the work done by the open-air lab for the Beaujolais region: Château de l’Éclair. Owned by SICAREX Beaujolais (technical support service), the estate covers 20 hectares. The site, at the forefront of research, is carrying on in the footsteps of Victor Vermorel. Since 2003, SICAREX has been conducting a vast survey, aimed at collecting and protecting the widest range of the gamay variety worldwide. The Conservatoire National du Gamay includes over 1000 accessions to date.