I couldn't attend La Beaujoloise in mid april but here are a few pictures shot when B. and I attended the very first one (if I'm right) of its kind, the one of 2006 in Villié Morgon at Marcel Lapierre's.
This was quite a new type of event, an almost-unofficial tasting event taking place in the margin of a larger, more conventional tasting gathering, in the matter the Rendez-Vous-du Beaujolais organized by the Comité Interprofessionnel du Beaujolais (a regional wine syndicate) in a string of villages. B. and I had gone to the mainstream event where by the way Marcel Lapierre was also taking part (see the 2 pictures below) and then there was also this almost-confidential (back then) event and we decided to drop there in the afternoon.
These salons off (meaning off the mainstream event) like the French call them were only beginning to sprout, like the Dive Bouteille in Angers (on the side of the major Salon des Vins de Loire), but the concept behind Marcel Lapierre's Beaujoloise was different : it was a very small gathering of winegrowers/friends who set up a few tables in a lead winery, here for instance the one of Marcel Lapierre, and poured their wines to professional visitors. This format of event, even more casual than the Dive Bouteille and still dead serious about the quality of the wines and the passion of the attending public, was to become viral in the following years among the artisan vintners looking to connect with the buyers, the market and with their fellow winemakers in a very relaxed way. Today there is not a single wine region in France without these friendly-organized events often taking place in the facility of one of the participating winemakers.
A courtyard with a few tables in front of Marcel Lapierre's wine farm in Villié-Morgon, the setting was pretty austere but you had here a bunch of high-flying artists, I was very impressed and shy, I don't have many pictures, and I remember that it was very cold. I probably have an orange notebook somewhere with notes and if I dig it I may add a few comments but pending that we'll be content with these few pictures, especially the ones where Marcel Lapierre chats with a few people in the cask cellar at the end of the day (the cellar door is on the street level if I remember).
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