Why we're declaring war on Erigeron (and it's good news for your palate)

If you visited our vines this summer, you might have found the landscape bucolic. Green between the stocks looks lovely on a postcard. But for us, vignerons, it was a warning.

This year 2025, marked by drought, we saw some parcels overrun by Erigeron. A tenacious plant that looks like a harmless weed, but is in fact a formidable competitor.

The water battle (and the taste battle). Why worry now, in the middle of winter? Because the competition plays out underground. When grass is too present at the vine's foot:

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It steals the water. The vine, already thirsty from August's heat, has to fight for every drop.

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It changes the taste. Less well-known: heavy plant pressure can, over time, give the wine a "herbaceous", green, even rustic note.

And at Bugnazet, we love the fruit, the gluttony and the clarity of the terroir. Not dried-herb tea.

The great winter clean-up. So before the vine wakes up, we use the winter to put things in order. The goal isn't to turn our vines into a desert, but to control the competition. We pass through each row to work the soil and remove that competition at the vines' feet. It's thankless, invisible, physical work. But it's that shadow work that will guarantee the 2026 vintage tastes purely of our gamays — and nothing else.