La Baleine Ivre 2020
La Baleine Ivre 2020
Gamay as we like it best: fresh, juicy, with lots of red fruit, but also a note of something more earthy and serious. Cyrille is the master of holding his wines in a pose that flashes between wild and elegant. The extra years in bottle have added further complexity.
15 day carbonic maceration, before aging for 1 year in old oak barrels. No filtration, fining or added sulphur.
Cyrille Vuillod of La Dernière Goutte (meaning ‘The Last Drop’) comes from the Hautes-Alpes, and before his life making wine worked in the mountains as a ski instructor. The decision to become a winemaker was based on his enjoyment of wine (surely the best reason). Having picked grapes in the Beaujolais area, he set up shop at the edge of Brouilly. Cyrille started winemaking in 2011 where he worked under Jean-Claude Lapalu for three years, and in 2012 he produced his first vintage in his own cellar.
Style: Still
Colour: Red
Producer: La Dernière Goutte (Cyrille Vuillod)
Country: France
Region: Beaujolais
Grapes: Gamay
ABV: 13%
Sulphur: Zero added
Cuvée: La Baleine Ivre
Vintage: 2018
Producer: Cyrille Vuillod
Region: France, Vaux en Beaujolais, La Chaumière
Style + Colour: Still, Red
Grapes/Blend: Gamay
ABV: 13%
Sulfur: none added
Originating from the Hautes-Alpes, Cyrille had various careers before finding winemaking as a grape harvester, which is how he landed in Beaujolais. A warm character with a cheeky smile, his wines all show a real softness with a serious drinkability. Vinification is mostly full carbonic maceration with little, if any, use of oak and sulphur. Initially working under Jean-Claude Lapalu, he produced his first vintage in 2012. He has 5 hectares of old and young Gamay on the edge of Brouilly, vines planted on a mix of pink granite, sand, clay and silex.
