“Organic growing is not a step backwards. I couldn’t see myself starting out in this profession with a can of spray on my back”, says Cosima Bassouls, who has been committed to organic conversion since her first vintage. It was an obvious choice for this young woman who took over from her parents who bought Château des Vergers in Lantignié at the turn of the millennium.

Following training courses in the region of Roussillon and with Frédéric Berne, Cosima approached the vinification of her first harvest with a very precise idea of her profession: “Organic conversion is a first step, organic is a label, but by no means an end in itself. I want to grow resilient vines, which is why I decided to go further by committing myself to agro-ecology”. Cosima spends a lot of time in her vineyards, working to produce the beautiful grapes that are the alpha and omega of great Beaujolais wines. She works on plant cover, practises agroforestry – she has replanted trees in the vineyard – and uses a gentle pruning method, which is less ‘traumatic’ for the plant.

Attracted by the collective approach of the Lantignié winegrowers, she has given herself five years to completely restructure six hectares (the remaining four hectares lie fallow or are tenanted to Frédéric Berne). Reduced manipulation, indigenous yeasts, ten to seventeen days of semi-carbonic maceration with pumping over, some pigeages and adapting the ageing according to the plot of land are the fundamentals of her work in the cellar. Her aim is “to produce terroir-driven wines with a spirit”.