Julie Balagny lives in a small town called Romanèche-Thorins, halfway between Fleurie and Moulin à Vent, the two Beaujolais appellations where she has vineyards. In Fleurie, she farms two contiguous plots on a very steep, curving hillside, well isolated from the pesticide-ridden wasteland that dominates the rolling granite hills of the region. It's so steep that the tilling must be done with a winch and cable, followed by a second pass with a pick. In very successful vintages, these vineyards are bottled separately: En Remont and Cayenne. Sometimes she even sneaks in a third Fleurie cuvée called Simone (but not this year). She also has a half-hectare of vines in Moulin à Vent called Doctor Buchaille, and nearby a little patch of vines designated simply as Beaujolais. In years with adequate yield, these are also bottled separately. All in all, Julie farms just under 5 hectares (12 acres) of vines.

Originally from Paris, Julie learned how to make wine with some old-guard organic producers throughout the South. About a decade ago, she found a small property in the Beaujolais, including a cellar with an ancient vertical press affixed to a granite foundation. It is really something to behold. I highly recommend reading this thorough piece by Bert Celce (lots of cool photos!) to get a sense of what pressing looks like in Julie’s cave. After it’s initial carbonic phase of fermentation, whole bunches are pressed over the course of 10 to 15 hours (because the manual press is so huge!), and then the free run juice is recombined with the pressed juice in large concrete vats to finish fermentation, before being moved to old oak barrels to rest for the winter.

While the farming and winemaking are pretty straightforward (just lots of hard manual labor, patience, and zero tolerance for additives) Julie is anything but. Her vision for winemaking encompasses a much broader social vision for establishing collectives that function laterally to commerce as usual, opening her house to wayfarers, offering them room and board in exchange for work. And just on a personal level, she is one of the most open and generous winemakers I know—always ready to open another bottle, host us for a late night snack, or just sit around smoking cigarettes until dawn, laughing about whatever. She is truly a legend, and always the last person to put her glass down.

Having tasted the wines at Julie’s house in both the spring and fall of 2019, and again this spring at the annual fairs, we are thrilled to finally receive the 2018 vintage from Julie. Though still anomalous within the long durée of Beaujolais vintages, 2018 is in some sense a return to form following the hale, frost and heat of 2017. Julie made four wines, and we have a small amount of each. They exude her signature style: delicately aromatic, with compact acidity and layers of juicy, mineral-rich fruit.

B

Below is what we currently have in stock from Julie. Let us know if we can set any aside for you by giving us a call (773) 360-8365 or emailing us with your request.

Doctor Buchaille 2019 $52
En Remont 2019 $52
En Remont 2020 $53
En Remont MAGNUM 2020 $116
Minouche 2020 $38
Françoise 2020 $30