Exploring northern Beaujolais

I have to confess how excited I was about visiting Beaujolais. As I am (deceptively) mature, Beaujolais was one of the first wines I heard of and, indeed, consumed. This was shortly before the British wine market became flooded with New World wines and even when I was working at Oddbins in the early 1990s, Beaujolais Nouveau was still quite a big deal and involved some very early morning deliveries. As soon as it came off the van we'd open it – of course – and this light boiled sweet and bubblegum confection went surprisingly well with a McDonald's Big Breakfast or two (you'd be hungry at that hour). It's hardly representative of Beaujolais though and did as much for the reputation of the region as Liebfraumilch did for Germany.

We got to experience the real Beaujolais on holiday last summer, spending a couple of nights in tiny Lancié near Fleurie. We stayed in the beautiful family run maison d'hôtes Les Pasquiers (see top) where we enjoyed breakfast and evening meals, all based around local produce, even sourced from their kitchen garden. Dinner at Les Pasquiers also included local wines from Méziat down the road in Chiroubles.

We spent two nights in Beaujolais but, with our daughter in tow, didn't have too much time to devote to wine. So, after our first night at Les Pasquiers we had a relaxing morning by the pool before heading out for lunch at Domaine de la Madone in Fleurie. We spent the rest of the afternoon following the Route des Vins through northern Beaujolais – Moulin à Vent, Chénas, Juliénas and St Amour before looping back to Lancié via Romanèche-Thorins. Other than the more famous communes of Fleurie and Juliénas, these were mainly quite modest little hamlets, but the old stones and seas of vines help reveal Beaujolais' long history. Place names like Juliénas and Romanèche-Thorins hint at the region's Roman heritage.

The following day after checking out of Les Pasquiers, we headed south through Chiroubles and Villié-Morgon and Brouilly, passing extinct volcanos Mont du Py and Mont de Brouilly (see below), sources of serious, age-worthy wines. It would have been tempting to stop off in the handsome town of Brouilly with its bustling cafés and bars, but we were heading to Lyon for lunch.

Next time we'll also include southern Beaujolais, especially the scenic Pierres Dorées district, but this visit we focused on the northerly crus – the finer wines of the region. I'm so pleased we did. After a few disappointing decades, Beaujolais is now back on track producing some of France's best value and most enjoyable wines. For me, Beaujolais has graduated from perking up a dreary November to often taking top billing at Christmas. It deserves a bit more than a Big Breakfast.

(If you're planning to visit the region take a look at this useful piece by Sue Style on the Decanter website.)

Lunch at Domaine de la Madone, Fleurie

A generous plate of charcuterie and glass of Beaujolais usefully takes some beating for lunch. In Suffolk at the British Larder I memorably had their Dingley Dell tasting platter with a glass of Beaujolais-Villages (read about it here). The zippy, fruity red wine offsets the porky richness to perfection.

However, while staying in Lancié last summer our hosts recommended lunch at Domaine de la Madone in neighbouring Fleurie. To get there we drove through the pretty town of Fleurie and followed a steep road up the hill towards the chapel at the top. I knew this part of Beaujolais was quite hilly, but had no idea you'd get such spectacular sweeping views towards the Alps.

We sat at a table outside and from the short menu we selected local charcuterie, omelettes and salad and glasses of the domaine's Cuvée Vieille Vignes Madone (from vines alongside the auberge). With its bright cherry fruit, cool minerality and savoury lick of oak, it was a deliciously versatile wine, easy drinking, yet satisfying – so different to the bubblegum-like Beaujolais Nouveau you might have drunk in the past. If we hadn't been eating properly in the evening, the entrecôte steak on the menu would have been a tempting, too.

Over coffee we chatted to a British family who were staying in the gîte let out by the domaine. They had served the estate's wine at their wedding and it was their second year staying here. Highly recommended all round.

Chablis to Beaujolais: an epic journey for wine lovers

After breakfast in the sunny garden of the Hostellerie des Clos in Chablis, we returned to the car to continue our journey. Our next destination would be Lancié in Beaujolais for a two night stay before finishing our first week in France in the southern Rhône near Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe.

We headed south of Chablis to pick up the A6 autoroute for Pouilly-en-Auxois where we took the quieter A38 towards Dijon. As we approached Dijon, it got much more hilly and we turned off the motorway onto the D108 which zig zagged steeply up and over the northerly part of the Hautes Côtes de Nuits to Marsannay where we picked up the D974. This is where wine lovers (particularly Burgundy lovers) start getting very excited. The D974 (previously called the N74) runs north to south alongside the Côte d'Or, passing through a series of world famous wine villages, names you generally only see on seriously smart bottles. There is even a restaurant named after this road in San Francisco with an appropriately Burgundian wine list.

As I'd driven along the D974 a couple of times already and it was my husband's first visit to the area, I did the honours so he could sit back and admire the views. We drove through Gevrey-Chambertin and Chambolle-Musigny, passed by the walled expanse of the Clos de Vougeot, continued through Vosne-Romanée and then the busy little town of Nuits-St-Georges and on towards Beaune past the huge mound of Corton with its forested crown.

We stopped for lunch in Beaune, easily parking on the inner ring road. My classically Burgundian oeufs en meurette and my husband's steak went down beautifully with a drop of Beaune, obviously. After coffee and sunny stroll, we were back in the car continuing south.

We took the A6 autoroute briefly to Chalon before turning west to Givry to pick up the D981, an old road that runs south to Cluny. A more scenic option is to leave Beaune on the D974 and pass through Meursault and Chagny where you can pick up the D981. The Côte Chalonnaise has always appealed to me as these wines – generally lighter and more rustic than their glitzier neighbours in the Côte d'Or – were popular with French nobility during the Middle Ages. Apparently Henri IV was partial to the wines of Givry which had been popular since the 6th century. The D981 goes through the historic towns of Rully, Givry and Buxy, passing handsome old stone buildings, stately cedar trees and the occasional château.

The region looked as though it has enjoyed plenty of commercial success in the past, even if its wines are now overshadowed by neighbouring regions. Following this attractive, gently undulating old route was quite an unexpected treat and judging by the numbers of cyclists we passed coming in the other direction, it's a popular one, too. The road led to the monastic centre of Cluny, congested with coach parties when we drove through. We then picked up the main road, the N79 to Mâcon, passing vineyards and the craggy limestone Roche de Solutré, the landscape becoming much more dramatic. Finally, after a few minutes on the A6 we turned off towards Lancié near Fleurie, for two nights at maison d'hôtes Les Pasquiers, looking forward to dinner and a decent drop of Beaujolais.