I heard the sad news over the weekend but waited for confirmation before writing anything. Julie Balagny, vigneronne of Moulin-à-Vent has recently died.

Her home was nestled in the hamlet of Les Thorins. A house whose door would usually be wide open – even if she was not at home – which happened to me more than once when she forgot that we had an appointment! But, in her stead, there was always a dog, a cat, or maybe a chicken, to greet me. Memorably, there was once a young lamb – making a great impression of a dog – except for its voice.

Julie was a free-thinker and very much a non-interventionist winemaker, sometimes to the extent that she might fall foul of fellow AOC winemakers and choose to label her wines as Vin de France. But the wines of Julie reflected her character – honest and frank – they were low-intervention wines, modestly coloured but immodestly full-flavoured. Her 2021s were superb – if you want to pidgeon-hole a style, similar those of the Thillardon brothers – it was just a shame that there were so few of them in 2021.

This is a big loss to the diversity of production in Beaujolais and I will miss her very much…