According to Beaujolais lore, the Lord gave grapes to Noah as a gesture of apology for the Great Flood, and the first documentation of a vineyard in Beaujolais is dated in the year 956. Wines from Beaujolais have been around a long, long time. That first vineyard, by the way, was called Brulliacus, today’s Brouilly, a hill, they say, that was shaped by Gargantua himself to protect the entrance to the vineyard. There is much to swallow besides wine when sipping and discussing Beaujolais.

What is beyond dispute is that in the 14th century, Phillip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, issued an edict that the Gamay Noir, the red wine grape of Beaujolais, be banned from all production in the duchy and that the peasants who produced Beaujolais ignored the edict. One result is that the Gamay is at its best only in Beaujolais and provides us with one of the few examples of a wine bringing us instant joy and refreshment. No need to linger over a bottle seeking its complexities or wondering about how long to cellar it. It is a wine to drink and enjoy.

That said, we must recognize that the ten grand crus of this “land of the golden stones” abutting the southern edge of Burgundy proper, do represent a fine expression of this grape and do command considerable respect. These crus (“growths”) are named for the villages or sites in which they are located: Morgon; Saint-Amour; Chenas; Brouilly; Cote-de-Brouilly; Julienas; Moulin-a-Vent; Regnie; Chiroubles; and Fleurie. Beneath those lordly crus are the daily-use wines labeled “Beaujolais,” produced from grapes grown anywhere in the region or “Beaujolais-Villages,” from grapes grown in or near one of the villages. These flow into Lyon in such quantities that it’s said three rivers feed the city: the Rhone, the Saone, and the Beaujolais.

Around midnight on the third Wednesday of November, the Beaujolais villages take on the appearance of a military staging area for an invasion, because on the third Thursday of November, the newly-harvested wine can be released as “Beaujolais Nouveau.” Promptly at midnight, the trucks roll out, the helicopters take off, and the new wine heads for major markets around the world to allow thousands of bars and restaurants and private parties to be the first to serve it.

By the end of the month, however, cooler heads prevail, and the new stuff is finished off, never to be thought of again; but the producers, as a result, have generated almost half their yearly income from the craze.

In spite of the weakness of the dollar against the euro, Beaujolais remains one of the best-value, all-purpose, pleasant wines of all.