Too late in winter to chop?

I had a baby in October and severely neglected watering my fiddle for a couple of weeks. I recently watered it again and it freaked out and dropped a ton of leaves (and is still dropping them daily) and now it looks really derpy. I want to chop it down to a bare stalk and start over, but I’ve heard I need to do that in the spring or during active growing season. Is it possible to do it in December and still have success with it coming back?