Romanèche-Thorins, Beaujolais
We went to Julie Balagny in Romanèche-Thorins at the end of the afternoon, her wine farm is a lovely quiet place with dogs and farm animals. At one point she told us about her beginnings, like she candidated to be in charge of the winemaking in a family winery in southern France that had just
lost its householder, and this, in spite of having never had a real full experience of the job. She was a bit anxious but at the same time confindent that wine could be made by
itself without intervention or yeast, she was just annoyed by the enologist who visited from time to time and stressed her, and also by the son of the family who wanted everything to be square. I guess retrospectively she wondered what she'd had done if the wine went south but the wine turned fine and she ended staying 5 years there.
She later met Marcel Lapierre in 2007 (if I'm right) which made her look for something in the Beaujolais, she went every year to Marcel's méchoui on july 14, a friendly and unformal gathering with 4 whole porks, 600 people and 10 hectoliters of wine. She met other people there and one day Yvon Métras (met him on her first visit at the méchouis) and Jean-François Ganevat told here they could look around for available parcels for here if she liked to setlle in their region, and she ended up starting in the Beaujolais in 2009. I first met her by chance in 2010 (see here) while dropping at Yvon Métras, this was her first vintage and as she had very little volumes because of hail, she used one of Yvon's cement tanks for her maceration, and this helped her adapt also to this new region, fermentation style and varieties after years of vinifying Syrah and Grenache in the south. To stay with up-to-date info, she now works on 4,8 hectares of vineyards, all rentals (the most she had).
Juliette asked what was the work these days around when we visited, Julie said tying the canes, she says there's a small parcel of Beaujolais where usually you don't need to tie, but this year it grows high for some reason, and there's also an unusual bunch number and production, I ask if she cuts them down but she says no, certainly not, she had for example yields as low as 8 hectoliters/hectare and she'll sigh in relief if she gets more grapes. On the Moulins she is now at 20 ho/ha and same on Fleurie.
__ b...j.l..s 2019, a vin de France of course, the name is of course as you guessed a trick to tell what can't be told when labelled as vin de France (table wine). Nice glycerol feel in the mouth. Vineyard located in Emeringes, north-east of Vauxrenard, bottled 24 june. She made this cuvée first in 2018. In 2017 she blended these grapes with the Moulins to make Ordinaire, with another label. In 2016 it was still an AOC with the same label design, today she took the same label and just took off a few letters. It's a small, 8-hectoliter cuvée so she wanted no boring procedures, risk a refusal and have the wine administration people come here check her parcel like every time she asks for the Appellation. She says in 2018 for her 10th vintage in the Beaujolais and her 40th birthday, she offered herself the luxury to make zero appellation and bottle everything as vin de France... This year she'll make part in vin de France but will ask the appellation for her Fleurie.
__ Cayenne, Fleurie 2019. Some reduction, early to taste, you feel the wine needs more time after bottling (bottled june 25, 2 weeks earlier). Julie bottles with a 6-spout filler that has a vacuum pump to respect the wine. She has two Cayennes, the one we taste is made with vines that are 60 to 100 years old on a granite and quartz soil.
Speaking of her vinification, Julie says that she cools the grapes for 24 hours to start in the fermenters with cool bunches. She puts CO2 once when the fermenter is filled but usually never again. She never uses a pied de cuve, just sometimes at the end she may uses lees from other tanks in case of a lagging fermentation. She says she never presses a dry wine, she makes 3-week macerations and when she presses there is still some sugar, not only in the whole berries but also in the free run.
__ en remont, Fleurie 2019. Super substance, but we're tasting that pretty early again. My advice is never let pass an "en remont" if you can, just open it in time.
Aaron speaks at one point about yeast and for example the different approach of Fred Cossard who favors the ones of the vintage, trying for that purpose not to have remaining ones from the previous vintages in the cellar atmosphere, and Aaron points to the book of Max L'Eglise about the organic vinification, a classic on the issue, and Julie says it was her first book on the subject, a gem of a book, she adds, it was found by her mother at the FNAC in 1999... Aaron remembers the part with using and recovering the lees for restarting fermentations, and she says she does it a lot as well as other people around here like Jean-Louis, there's an art of using the lees indeed.
__ Docteur Briçou, vin de France 2019, super ready and enjoyable already, although bottled recently if I'm right. This cuvée was formerly named Docteur Buchaille, the drawing lets you guess the parcel (which was planted in 1913) is in Moulin à Vent. She bottled it as table wine because she's done with the administrative hurdles, she does the effort for Fleurie but the vibes are less friendly in Moulin, so she'll pass on the AOC there. She started vinifying this parcel in 2015 under a different name, in 2016 it was Docteur Buchaille, in 2017 she blended it with the Beaujolais for the cuvée Ordinaire (named in tribute to the Ordinaire staff behind Brumaire where she enjoyed such a warm welcome two consecutive years) and in 2018 she made a Docteur Buchaille again.
__ Domaine Croix-Charnay, Au Levant, Beaujolais Quincié L'Huire 2019 by Iris Mauclert & Wincent Lebègue. I think Juliette brought this bottle. 2nd vintage of this domaine, only 1,7 hectare surface. I found the wine had a feel of high alcohol. The surface is small but the yields are quite high and allow them to make a living.
__ Minouche, vin de France 2019, by le 249, Julie's négoce part. Grapes purchased to Gilles & Jérôme Courtois in Chânes, Beaujolais. This domaine managed by the father and son is located in Leynes and is in its 2nd or 3rd conversion year. Their vineyard surface is large and they can't vinify & sell the bottles for the whole surface. This is her first négoce wine. She says she waited 11 years to make a négoce wine, she was initially against the idea but in the end she thinks it's interesting to do. Nice swallowing feel, easy, lightness feel, very promising. Bottled 2 weeks before also. Price will be around 10 € without tax probably. She was supposed to make her first négoce wine with a vineyard from Sylvain Chanudet but the parcel was unexpectedly unavailable.
__ Cayenne 2018, a bottle without label. Exquisite nose. Mouth : delicious, what a difference a year in bottle can make, I know it's also a different vintage, but still, it got the time to make itself whole.
__ Old vintage indeed already, and Aaron remembers that back in 2015 when he tasted this wine it was way different and really notready. Now very adult, grownup, elaborate and mature. Just a delicious wine. An importer bought her 1200 bottles of this wine in 2016 if I understand correctly, and this saved her financially at the time.
__ Saint Véran 2019. Turbid, quite a dark white, aromas of grape skin. She made here a 15-day carbo, but with 7 liters of free run juice it was not really a skin maceration. Really a dry white feel here !14,8 % alcohol.
Just to remember that Julie's parcels aren't easy, some needing to work with a winch and a walk plow...
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