Few wine regions are as quietly beautiful as Beaujolais, where the rolling green hills are punctuated by small, pretty towns, the sort where businesses still close for lunch from noon to 3 p.m., and window boxes are bright with colorful fresh flowers.

Wine is the primary business, and the main reason the towns still have butchers, bakers and other institutions that have gone missing in many hollowed-out communities throughout rural France.

Vineyards, naturally, dominate the hillsides. Most are divided into plots that are part of small, family estates tended by vignerons who farm the grapes and make the wines.

Beaujolais has come a long way since the days of Beaujolais Nouveau in the last quarter of the 20th century, when big négociants controlled the business and Beaujolais was thought to be no more than a cheerful, lighthearted drink.

Today, the region is full of young, energetic, quality-minded vignerons, some new to the area, while others come from families who have farmed the gamay grapes for generations. The wines are better than ever. You can still find the joyous thirst-quenching styles that many believe define the region, but it’s just as easy to find complex expressions of Beaujolais’s many different terroirs, the sorts of wines that have changed minds about the area’s potential.