Light-Bodied Red Wines: What Are They, Really?
For us, it starts with a love affair. Actually, two love affairs.
There was a time—way back in the misty, long-forgotten years of Waterford Wine—when Beaujolais was decidedly unpopular. Yet for reasons we can mostly trace back to reading Kermit Lynch’s first wine book, we began quietly exploring it anyway. And for a few of us, it was instant devotion. At one point, we famously managed to squeeze in twenty-eight lunches in a row with Lapierre Morgon—every single time. From that stretch sprang a deep love for fresh, vibrant red wines that seemed to express pure joie de vivre: light on their feet, alive with energy, and endlessly drinkable.
The second love affair was Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. For years, it eluded us. Too often it showed as underripe blueberry, angular and green, leaving us hoping that someday—some vintage, some bottle—it would finally come around. We waited for the violet perfume, the soft, silky mid-palate we’d heard whispered about. We wanted elegance, not greenness; lift, not dirt. And then, as so often happens in the wine world, the bug bit. Joguet’s Chinon at ten years old did the trick. Suddenly, it all made sense.
So what about all the other wines that aren’t Beaujolais or Loire Cabernet Franc?
What we’ve found is this: once you’ve gone down this path, these other wines aren’t necessarily related by grape or geography. They’re related by feeling. They share that same freshness, vibrancy, and sense of ease at the table. They’re light-bodied reds that favor lift over weight, perfume over power, and pleasure over posture.
In other words, if you love Beaujolais and Loire Cabernet Franc the way we do, chances are you’ll love these wines too—even if they come from somewhere else entirely.
