Tasted with Julie Balagny in Les Thorins, 17 March 2022.
Domaine Julie Balagny
249 Route des Thorins,
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 6 19 55 67 48
More reports with Julie Balagny
As I entered the courtyard of Julie’s place, I was met with a bleating – but from where? Then, rising from the doormat came Freddy to greet me – a lamb, hardly 2-weeks-old, who had been rejected by his mother. Freddy was hand-reared which accounts for the fact that he thinks he’s a dog and doesn’t like to go into the field with the other lambs, rather staying with the chickens in the courtyard!
Julie on her 2021 & 2020 vintage:
“2021 was quite normal for us as I often have a bit of frost and mildew. My yields are never 20 hl/ha and in 2021 we were always between 15-17 hl/ha. It was the same in 2020 – you know I have old vines and so there are not so many grapes. As for the market, it’s going well, the wines are sold – but then there’s not that much of them!”
The wines…
The wines here are so delicious, juicy and moreish – bravo!
‘I change the label every year – my Fleurie is a song. But there’s a coherence behind the history. This from the Fleurie parcel – 3 different types of soil, vines of 40 years old, 3-400 m altitude.’
Fragrant, lovely nose – really attractive. Mouth-filling, delicious, fragrant flavours – long too. Bravo! 14.5° but you won’t notice…
2020 Fleurie En Remont
The same parcel, but here on granite and quartz – not the basalt part – the older vines that range from more than 60 to over 100-years-old.
A bit more colour. A little more higher-toned and showing more perfume too. Extra energy for this wine – almost a hint of gas. Cushioned red fruit. More concentration in the finish. Long – simply excellent wine!
2020 VdF Simone
Very old vines on the quartz.
A little less colour but a more forward nose. Red fruit – of clarity and invitation. Open, mouth-watering, wide. Another absolutely delicious thing.