Yohan Lardy travelled extensively before coming home, and it was those trips abroad that made him realize how remarkable his home region actually was. A fifth-generation vigneron, he established his own domaine in 2012 with a clear mission: organic farming and minimal intervention, letting the fruit and terroir speak without interference. 

The Les Michelons vineyard sits at the heights of Moulin-à-Vent, with vines planted in 1911 and 1950 forming a small enclosed parcel surrounded by a low stone wall and poppies, a setting the Lardys preserve as carefully as the vines themselves. The roots dig into shallow, lean soils of crumbling pink granite rich in manganese, and every grape is hand-harvested and vinified as whole clusters with native yeasts, with no additions during winemaking. 

Production is tiny, a few thousand cases per year, and the depth of flavor that comes from those century-old vines is genuinely hard to match anywhere in Beaujolais.