2021 Fixin La Place

“It was my first 100% organic growing season, though there were a few times when I thought I would stop,” Guillaume Tardy tells me. “We lost around half the production to frost - 63 barrels instead of 107 in 2022. There was not a lot of sun and many rain showers, so it was important to protect the vines, spraying every seven or eight days (13 treatments in total). At the end, the grapes were healthy, but if yields had been 45hl/ha, then we might not have reached ripeness. I started harvesting on 19 September, one of the first in the Côte de Nuits, on the Saturday. That day was sunny, but then Sunday was rainy. We finished picking on Tuesday, and after that, mildew pressure started building. The vinification was normal, though I had to work a bit harder to obtain structure with one or two more pigeages than usual, five or six maximum. The tannins were not so ripe, so the extraction was not easy. After pressing, the quality was not great, thinner than other vintages because of the lack of sun, but once the malos were done, everything came back, and the wines and fruit came back, whilst the greenness disappeared. The wines are not big, but they are pretty and refreshing.”