La Dernière Goutte 'Tisane de Bois Tordu' 2022

The geeky details: The lightest of Cyrille's reds, this is 100% Gamay planted in pink granitic/sandy soils with 9 day carbonic maceration in concrete egg prior to 6 month élevage in neutral oak. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no additional SO2. 

The winemaker: Cyrille Vuillod has headed up La Derniere Goutte since 2012. Before launching himself into winemaking, Cyrille worked as a ski instructor in his native Hautes-Alpes region. He always loved wine purely out of the enjoyment he took in drinking it, and he worked for years in Beaujolais doing harvests for friends to earn extra money in his off-season. He finally decided to take up the métier of vigneron full-time. He dedicated himself to a three-year apprenticeship of sorts in the cellar of Jean-Claude Lapalu, an extremely respected figure in the world of natural wine and someone whose experimental and boundary-pushing spirit has rubbed off on Cyrille. In 2011, Cyrille produced a first vintage of his own in Lapalu’s cellar, and since then he has been producing at his own place on the edge of Brouilly. Cyrille works just under 5 ha and has always farmed organically without certification. In fact, he chose to use the organically permitted sprays in his first three years of farming, but has since forgone their use completely. Now Cyrille also works biodynamically. Cyrille farms a patchwork of parcels around Vaux-en-Beaujolais filled with gnarly old vines on pink granitic sand, flint, and clay.