Domaine des Lambrays - Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2019

Druva

Pinot Noir

Tasting note

The 2019 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru is showing very well in bottle, wafting from the glass with aromas of raspberries, strawberries and plums mingled with scents of orange rind, rose petals and sweet spices. Full-bodied, ample and satiny, it's a sensual, caressing wine with a fleshy core of fruit, polished tannins and lively balancing acids. This will offer a broad drinking window.

Jacques Devauges told me that he picked between August 20 and August 26, reporting tiny yields of only 15 hectoliters per hectare and a finished alcohol for Clos des Lambrays itself of around 13.8%. This is the domaine's second year in organic certification and its first in biodynamic farming. The Clos was vinified without any destemming and no punch-downs whatsoever, in specially designed vats (whose technical details Devauges refused to divulge, telling me that he intends to share the secrets with the world some time this year) that permit him to separate the vineyard's various parcels. We tasted multiple components—which do display notable differences in function of location, vine age and vine material—and then the very impressive final blend.

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Morey-Saint-Denis's musical chairs appear to have stopped, at least for the moment, and Jacques Desvauges, formerly of the neighboring Clos de Tart, has replaced Boris Champy at the Domaine des Lambrays. The 2018s that I tasted, made by Champy, showed superbly, vindicating the choice to harvest early. The white wines merit particular praise, and the reds are purer and more precise than their immediate predecessors. Desvauges told me that the domaine began organic conversion in 2019 and started farming biodynamically in 2020, and that in 2019 he vinified the Clos parcel by parcel, divided according to geology. His ambition is to farm vine by vine, managing yields much more meticulously, especially where younger vines are concerned. While the long-time director of the Domaine des Lambrays, Thierry Brouin, was a charming and well-liked figurehead for the estate, it's an open secret that more could have been done in the vineyards, which in the 1980s were replanted in places with clones and high-yielding Pinot Droit. It is clear, too, that the cuverie, where roto-fermenters were employed for the lower appellations and where the large 44-hectoliter fermentation tanks lacked meaningful temperature control, needed to be updated. Certain vintages also invoked the specter of Brettanomyces. So, while Brouin's wines improved after a nadir in the 1980s, more needs to be done if the quality that was routinely attained at the domaine until the mid-1970s is to be recaptured. Intelligent and thoughtful, Desvauges is energized and enthusiastic, ready to tackle these challenges, and with the resources of LVMH behind him, the deck is stacked in his favor. A new cuverie, he tells me, will be constructed with new materiel, and no doubt sanitation in the cellar will be impeccable. Anyone who has tasted the immensely good wines produced during the halcyon days of the Clos des Lambrays will know that this site is one of Burgundy's greatest and most characterful terroirs and will be following the domaine's future closely—and wishing Desvauges every success in his new role.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate