Scaling Heights: Duroché’s Lavaut Saint-Jacques 1969-2019

BY NEAL MARTIN | JULY 27, 2022

Burgundy likes to make things as complicated as possible. It’s the Rubik’s cube of wine regions. For this reason, most Burgundy experts take a trip to the tattoo parlour to have a jigsaw of vineyards inked down their arms. I have the Côte de Beaune on the left arm and Côte de Nuits on the right. (Don’t ask me where Irancy is inked.) As my tattooist was drawing Mazi-Chambertin, he asked whether it was spelled “Mazy” or “Mazi”? So confusing. The answer is both, of course. We had the same quandary broaching Lavaux Saint-Jacques…or is that the more unorthodox Lavaut Saint-Jacques? Both identical, but in the end, it is a moot point when the wines are the calibre of those of Pierre Duroché.

Last November, Duroché invited me to his winery/home in Gevrey-Chambertin for a fascinating vertical of Lavaut Saint-Jacques. I have played my own small part in Duroché’s ascent, waxing lyrical about his wines since I first encountered them at a blind tasting in Holland and visiting him soon after. So impressed by the wines, I began writing them up in my car before the following appointment.

The history of the estate stretches back to the beginning of the 20th century. Its timeline commences in 1906 when Louis Duroché became the first generation to cultivate a smattering of parcels. He was succeeded by Émile, who successfully and presciently bottled the first wines in 1933, then Philippe Duroché, together with his wife Odile, expanded their holdings to five-hectares. It was, in fact, Philippe who decided to use the “Lavaut Saint-Jacques” variation. Gilles became the fourth generation to farm the vines in 1973, bringing the family’s holdings up to a modest 8.5-hectares.

Gilles’s son, Pierre, spent a great deal of time in the vineyard when growing up and was awarded a scientifique baccalauréat when he was 18, followed by a BTS in oenology and viticulture in Beaune. Having spent months at Château La Gardine in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, he worked stages in Australia, California and Spain, though it was always his priority to learn about the terroir in Burgundy. He commenced working at the estate in 2003 at the age of 21, working alongside his father and taking full responsibility for the wines from the 2005 vintage. Together with his better half Marianne, who he met at the Rock Climbing Gym in Beaune, he set Duroché on an upward trajectory.