You’re listening to the Drink a Little Podcast where we talk about exploring the world of wine and spirits while not letting it take over your life.

My name is Kelly Doherty. I'm a joyful child of God and a certified life coach. 
I’m also a wine educator and wine and spirits brand designer. 

I’ll show you how you can navigate your relationship with alcohol 
and how that mindset spills over into the rest of your life. 

We’ll learn about the world of wine and spirits together all while bolstering your confidence that you can have boundaries around alcohol and live your most amazing life. 

How this works is we do a little tasting at the top of the episode.
That wine will lead us into a discussion on how you can choose to live a mindful and balanced lifestyle with or without alcohol. The expression of each wine is unique and so then is the expression of each episode.

And today we are going to taste this Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages. We’ll taste from all over the world - this is from Beaujolais France.

Disclaimer that I will butcher pronunciations throughout this podcast, but know that my intention is not to offend, yet sometimes the pronunciation fails me.

The area of Beaujolais is a controlled geographical wine area in France 
connected and somewhat overlapping the southern part of Burgundy. If you’ve heard of the city of Lyon, this gastronomically beautiful city is very close (20 mi) from the area of Beaujolais.

The main black grape from this area has had a fascinating history of being somewhat maligned or put down by the French aristocracy. 

The Gamay grape grows very vigorously almost like a bush

And this high yield grape, in the late 14th century, was banned for about 60 years by Philippe the Bold a Duke of Burgundy. 

He thought the land could be used for the more elegant Pinot Noir grape plantings. It didn’t last, but the reputation of Pinot Noir as a grape of the aristocracy and the Gamay as a grape of the peasant or serf is a large part of the area’s history.

Today conscious producers of Gamay grapes in Beaujolais will carefully prune to try to reign in the overgrowth of this variety. 
When they create a smaller crop with pruning then it’s going to have more concentrated flavors and most likely end up as a more complex wine.

This where the quality classification of Beaujolais on the label comes into play.
There are 3 levels of quality based on the areas in the region that the grapes come from

Beaujolais AOC is the largest area of the south, 
lightest bodied wines, very fresh and meant to be consumed immediately. 

You may have heard of Beaujolais Nouveau.
These are wines that are all released on the 3rd Thursday of November - they are quick turnaround - harvested in Sept, processed in Oct and released in November. Fun and super simple wines. So that’s the base classification.

Beaujolais- Villages, which is what we will be tasting today is the mid-level classification

they must come from the hilly northern part of the region - 
Still I think very really reasonably priced for a very high quality light red. 

Depending on the blend if they can get some grapes from the higher end villages to blend in, 
they can become more intense wines.
This is all still the same Gamay grape variety coming from different vineyards and different villages.

The highest level classification are the CRUS - individual villages that are designated as CRUS - and here on the label you may or may not see the word Beaujolais, but the name of actual village is on the label. 

These are coming from very steep granite slopes which seems counterintuitive - they’re not getting much in the way of nutrients from these granite soils. 

But it helps to actually tame the potential overgrowth of these vines. These wines end up being ageworthy and much more complex.

So we are right in the middle with this Beaujolais-Villages and let’s give it a swirl and a taste. I did chill this for maybe 20 minutes. 

This Louis Jadot does get some grapes from the higher classified 10 famed Beaujolais Cru villages. 

More color than the super early drinking Beaujolais - spent more time on the skins but no real tannins to speak of.

High acidity
Light body and this does fit right in there
Juicy with Black cherry, ripe raspberry
Fruit forward with a little spice
Maybe cinnamon and nutmeg
What I love about this wine - Not trying to be pretentious
Very drinkable approachable
I think sometimes when you look at the label, very traditional, very old world, that may not be your impression
…………………

I wanted to start the podcast with this wine because I think this mid-level Beaujolais sets the tone for this podcast as it is playful and serious at the same time - it’s balanced. 

We will be talking about tasting wines paired with conversations about how can I help people shift their relationship with alcohol
If they are overdrinking in an effort to avoid things in their lives. 
Or they say to themselves, I’m just going to have one drink tonight and then they don’t keep their promises to themselves.

Alcohol is something that is very serious from a safety standpoint from a responsibility stand point. 
Also from a not getting stuck in one place in life standpoint - making sure we are continuing to grow and reaching our dreams. 

And while I don’t take any of that lightly and it’s very serious to me in the background, I think we can talk about these things from a light-hearted perspective and have fun while bringing balance to our lives from a mindfully drinking perspective.

I just don’t believe people can affect change within themselves or with others 
from a tight, heavy, stressed out, willpower, deprivation type of place. 

Because that usually involves a lot of judgment of yourself and judgment of others 
and it just doesn’t last.

Lasting change comes from when we feel free to consciously choose one little decision at a time. And letting those little decisions build on each other. 

I’ll talk about having a plan ahead of time around drinking,
how to create space where our changes build the life of our dreams
And how to not believe everything our brains offer us which can be so helpful in any part of our lives

Not perfect, but balanced, approachable, and fun, just like a beautiful, fresh balanced Beaujolais. 

I’ll have a new episode out every Tuesday.

I’ll tell you at the end of each episode which wine (or maybe spirit) we’ll explore next. If you want to join in, pick it up or get something similar. 

Obviously with distribution and smaller boutique brands, 
we most likely don’t access to all have the same products, so no worries.
 If you want to taste along which is totally optional, 
just try something similar and make sure to share it with a friend.

Next episode we will be tasting the Director’s Cut Chardonnay by Francis Ford Coppola. You won’t want to miss the ‘screening’ of this Director’s Cut.

Hey if you want to take anything I teach to a deeper level, I have a 1:1 coaching program tailored to your individual needs where we cover how to stop overdrinking, how to love yourself for all the right reasons, and emotional well-being. Go to kellydoherty.com/cheers