Christian Ducroux

Christian Ducroux is an encyclopedia of how to make wine without additives, and is considered by his winemaking peers, both in Beaujolais and beyond, as an example to follow. He started viticulture in 1970 in Régnié and moved to biodynamic winemaking in the mid 80's! He’s neither pretentious nor does he claim to know everything. Even though he knows a lot. He considers himself a simple farmer who wants to try to make each year better and in sincere harmony with his environment. Like Jean-Marc Dreyer, he eschews an expansionist method. Over the years he has reduced his 7.5 hectares of Beaujolais vineyards down to 4 so that he can better work with horses and other animals. 

One year Christian let some dwarf pigs loose in the vineyards, their mission was weed control and micro-ploughing of the soil. Unfortunately the following one was too dry and the poor little pigs weren’t able to complete their mission. We love this story, it says a lot about Christian’s character. We hope the pigs get another chance for the next years to come.