2023 Fixin Les Herbues

This year, instead of Ghislaine Barthod meticulously assembling representative samples in the barrel cellar, I tasted the wines in the comfortable warmth of their home. She guided me through her namesake range whilst her son, Clément, escorted me through those bearing her husband, Louis Boillot’s name. Clément oversees not only this gallimaufry of wines, but also nine cuvées from Beaujolais that are almost entirely from Moulin-à-Vent and sold under Domaine Louis Boillot.

“We did a lot of green harvest,” he told me. “We cut between 30% and 50% of the bunches in July depending on the vineyard so that we averaged around 40 hl/ha, a little lower in Gevrey at 35 hl/ha. Harvest began on September 9, though as usual, we picked the Volnay Les Angles earlier, on September 6. Everything is destemmed and the wines matured in 15% to 20% new oak. We have introduced more 600-liter barrels, so I had to buy some new ones [to start the barrel rotation of new and used oak]. The reds were racked 15 days earlier and the samples represent the final blend. I am surprised by the freshness and energy from such a warm vintage. The fruit is exuberant. There is just a little more ripeness in the Gevrey’s [under Louis Boillot] where the maximum alcohol is 13.8%. The Beaujolais wines underwent a 14-to-18-day cuvaison. Here, I am doing less extraction and using more vats.”