When Lucien Lardy inherited his father’s vineyards, he felt compelled to honour and preserve his father’s ‘wonderful legacy’. “I am fortunate,” he says, “that as part of my daily work I am acting as keeper of a French heritage. I get up early to go into my vineyard to walk through my vines, which gives me much happiness and a strong sense of freedom.”

Lucien Lardy is one of the founding members of ‘Terroirs Originels’, a collective of independent winemakers from Beaujolais and the Maconnais. A far cry from the industrial Beaujolais which has tainted the region’s name for so long, this group of artisan winemakers is committed to making estate-grown wines, where the winemaker is involved at every step, from farming to bottling. Their approach to farming is strictly sustainable, promoting utmost respect for the environment and biodiversity. They are also dedicated to preserving the area’s classic varieties: Gamay and Chardonnay.

Lucien owns around 35 acres of vines split between Fleurie, Moulin à Vent, Morgon and Beaujolais-Villages. “I vinify each of my plots separately,” he explains, “in order to manage the expression of all my land. This enables me to create complex and generous wines that display the characteristics of its terroir.”

When it comes to winemaking, Lucien would say he is more Burgundian in vinify each of my plots separately,” he explains, “in order to manage the expression of all my land. style. He favours semi-carbonic fermentation with partial destemming, all native yeasts and about two weeks maceration with partial ageing in a mixture of barrel and cask."