2019 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru

It’s always handy having Burgundy winemakers on speed dial. In the event of arriving at a winery only to discover that they thought the tasting was the following day, you can make a quick call and shoot up the road for an impromptu dégustation. That’s exactly what happened here. As it was my final rendezvous of the day, Jacques Desvauges, who took over from Bruno Champy on 1 March 2019, had time to explain everything happening at Domaine des Lambrays. Which is a lot.

“I think in 2019 we made many changes,” he began. “But you have to be careful what you change. You have to respect that, and yet every domaine has to challenge itself to do better than the year before. With 2019 we made a couple of important changes, the most important in the vineyard. We converted to 100% organic - no more chemicals. For us it has been hard because the vineyard is steep and the rows are perpendicular to the incline. It is better to spray the two sides [of the vine] at the same time, but since one side [of the ground] is higher than the other, there is no tractor that can do that. [It would topple over – a risk that has taken the life of more than one winemaker over the years.] We found a factory in Mâconnais that could build a specially made sprayer for us and this was first used in 2020. We also plough all the vines and that has been a huge amount of work because the tools are manufactured for use on flat land. So at least once a year every vine must be dug by hand.” We then discussed how they approach the vineyard in terms of sub-plots. “You can walk through the vineyard and feel the diversity between different sectors in terms of altitude, soil and geology. I wanted to understand this diversity better and I introduced a parcellaire approach, vinifying separate sub-plots in small tanks. Clos des Lambrays used to be fermented in 84-hectoliter tanks and barrelled down as one cuvée, whereas now there are now 11 cuvées that will be blended just prior to bottling. These changes were inspired by old bottles of Clos des Lambrays such as the 1918, which is spectacular. I also believe in using all the vineyard in the final blend except the 30 rows of young vines under 20 years old.”

Broaching the subject of the 2019 vintage that marks Desvauges’s debut in that he had total responsibility, the told me: “The 2019 is a small vintage in terms of volume, 21hl/ha for the Village Cru, 20h/ha for the Premier Cru and just 15hl/ha for the Grand Cru. That is because of turning organic and three major reasons during the growing season: the cold conditions during flowering that caused coulure, the fortnight of heat that stressed the vines that encouraged them to preserve their sap for the leaves instead of expanding the berries and thirdly, the warm wind that lasted four or five days that increased the rate of evaporation. We harvested the whites from 7 September and the reds from 13 September until 18 September. One thing that was noticeable is that in general 2019 was affected by drought in August and you could see the yellowing of leaves. But in Morey we had 52mm of rain on 3/4 and 16/17 August, which was more than other appellations.”

Tasting the three cuvées of the 2019 vintage, Village, Premier and Grand Cru, I felt there was a big step up between the first two. The Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru is exceptionally good and that was clear to see when Desvauges poured the 2017 and 2018 to compare. There just seems to be more depth and definitely more precision. It has more grip and density, partly due to concentration of fruit but also for a judicious increase in percentage of new oak (François Frères.) The 2019 vintage is the perfect way for Desvauges to open his account. What lies in the future? Well, following our tasting he took me for a quick peek at the enormous excavation where, just like down the road at Dujac though on a bigger scale thanks to LVMH’s deep pockets (and a bit of one-upmanship against Clos de Tart’s own rebirth) they plan a gravity-fed winery with secret innovations that Desvauges is clearly excited about.