Saint-Amour AOC  is the most northerly of the ten Beaujolais crus (9.3miles or 15km from Mâcon). It comprises the single commune of Saint-Amour-Bellevue (sic) in the Saône-et-Loire department, skirting the borders of Saint-Véran and the Mâconnais, This is the point at which the (granitic) Beaujolais vineyards end (Clive Coates MW: 1990. p.185).

Communes (1): Saint-Amour-Bellevue.

Terroir: The Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc vines lie mainly at 250 metres (820 feet). Decalcified clay–siliceous soils, with sandstone (‘grès’) and granitic gravel, marking the transition between purely primary soils to the south and limestone soils to the north in the Saint Veran and Macon AOCs.

Wine production & vineyard area: 1988: 16,404hl from 282ha (Clive Coates MW: 1990, p.185). | 2002 17,172hl from 317ha (Guide Hachette: 2004, p.181-2).

Wine style: Both primeur-style wines for early drinking, and more age worthy ones with more extract from longer macerations. ‘Intense colour, may be harsh initially,’ (Oz Clarke: 2015, p.228, abridged). ‘The wines have something of the character of Gamays from the Mâconnais. They are fullish and more sturdy, less racy than the other Beaujolais crus,’ (Clive Coates MW: 1990. p.185). In his Topographie de tous les vignobles connus dating from 1866, André Jullien put the wines from Saint-Amour in 4th class, saying ‘Saint-Amour makes agreeable wine, above all from the vines around the church and in the hamlets of la Ville and La Salle.’