Michel Guignier
BEAUJOLAIS
A fine Beaujolais winegrower, Michel Guignier is part of a 'peasant' tradition that led him quite naturally to organic/biodynamic farming. No synthetic chemicals, but working the soil with horses and plant-based treatments, without concession and with the greatest respect for the terroir and the vine: “I cultivate life in the vine”, he says, summarizing his conception of viticulture, a conception which is also that of its vinification and bottling, without added sulphur.
Michel Guignier's farm, in Vauxrenard, on the sloping heights of the northern part of Beaujolais, has 6.90 ha of vines on granite soil, with some plots on cru soils (Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie), but also plots of cereals and fruit trees, as well as animals, in accordance with the conceptions of biodynamics. Gamay reigns supreme, farmed without inputs to provide healthy, well-ripened grapes, and thus allow semi-carbonic maceration vinification that favors the purity of the fruit and the authentic expression of the terroir. At the end of aging in vats or barrels, the wines offer an absolute sincerity and a perfect digestibility which distinguish them in the abundant production of Beaujolais.
