This feature is part of the Innovation issue published on February 28, 2025.
Deep in the heart of France’s Beaujolais region is a small, terraced vineyard called Utopia. It looks like all the other vineyards covering the slopes of Mont Brouilly.
But the vines planted on the Utopia terraces are different. They’re not gamay, the authorised red grape of the Beaujolais appellation. They’re varieties you’ve probably never heard of: chambourcin, pinotin, souvignier gris – new, disease-resistant grapes, created in a nursery by crossing Vitis vinifera (wine-producing vines) with non-vinifera vines.
