Yann Bertrand St Amour Les Bambins 2021

From the very first sip we have been hooked on Yann’s wines. Working alongside parents Guy and Annick he has taken the region by storm since returning to the family vineyards. Yann is mentored by Jacques Néauport who was Jules Chauvet’s right hand man and is inspired by the movement that Jules and Jacques started.

Yann is incredibly driven by his work in the vineyard, the Gamay vines are very old, and he works hard with manures to keep the vineyard healthy. Whenever we’ve visited someone has to track him down in the vineyard somewhere. In the cellar the grapes are cooled before a very long cool slow carbonic maceration with no additions. It is heart breaking that in both 2016 and 2017 virtually every grape was lost to either frost or hail. Consequentially we have had to wait quite some time for Yann to have any wine for us but we are happy to be patient.

When tasting with him in 2017 he wrote in the bottom of my notebook “Le temps ne respecte pas ce qui se fait sans lui,” which roughly translates to “time does not respect what is done without him.”

Below you see the results of the patience on both our parts, Yann has a bright future and is one of the most thoughtful people in the world of wine. He knows our love for magnums so in most cases we have more magnums than bottles.

Shallow soils with alternating bands of blue volcanic rock and volcanic schist. Cold, semi carbonic maceration between 10-12 degrees c for a period of 15 days without manipulation. No added sulfites or added yeast. 4,000 bottles produced.