Beaujolais harvesting to begin Friday, September 1st

The Beaujolais vineyards have the green light! Harvesting began on August 28^th for Chardonnays and will start September 1^st for Gamays, in the earliest-ripening areas of the 12 Beaujolais appellations, and intensify day by day. The harvest kick-off date is set each year using technical data from Réseau Maturation (the ripening network), but winegrowers can of course adapt the date based on the ripeness of each of their plots. For nearly a month, over 20,000 pickers will be hard at work in the vineyard rows, since the majority of harvesting is still done by hand in the Beaujolais. Once picked, pressed and vinified, the Gamay and Chardonnay grapes will yield Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages and Beaujolais crus with a variety of profiles.