2018 Morey-Saint-Denis Village

The comical moment of my Burgundy marathon came at Domaine des Lambrays, when Jacques Desvauges wryly mentioned that three winemakers had a hand in the making of the 2017. Thierry Brouin had guided the wines through the growing season, then Boris Champy oversaw the racking and élevage, to be replaced by Desvauges for the bottling. People speak of the "Morey merry-go-round". Desvauges was clearly happy to have moved across the road from Clos de Tart and as I will detail, he has the freedom to introduce changes as he sees fit. This translates into the barrel cellar. I was fascinated to find that the barrels are arranged in accordance with the layout of the parcels within the almost-monopole, those nearest to the stairs from the lower parts of the vineyard and those at the far end from the upper contours. Interestingly, he found that this geographic organisation revealed patters in terms of how barrel behave, those from the bottom of the vineyard commencing their malolactic together and then gradually starting further and further down to those barrels from the upper sections. “I started working here on 1 March and so far, so good," he told me. "It’s a great opportunity. I’ve been honest explaining my view and perspective how to manage a domaine and it fitted their vision. The quality comes from the vineyard. The next step is to turn organic and biodynamic. If we can do this, it’s thanks to the efforts of Thierry Brouin over the last 38 years. Every domaine has to challenge themselves to do better. The vineyard is perpendicular to the slope so there is no machine to spray, so we had to design a prototype tractor. I asked for Ecocert certification so we are on the first year of conversion. I am a great fan of whole bunches, so that will remain. But we have already made changes. We will install smaller tanks to make small cuvées to make a parcellaire approach for the simple reason that when you walk into the vineyard you can see the heterogeneity with the sensitive Pinot Noir. There are 11 cuvées in 2019 harvest and they are aged separately and blended before bottling. We picked the reds from 25 August until 3 September, the whites on 27 August. Budburst was mid-April like normal, but after it was rainy and warm so the vines grew very vast. You come back at the weekend and the vines needed to be managed. The vines were three weeks in advance by the end of May. Yields are reasonable around 36hl/ha for the Clos des Lambrays and 45hl/ha for the Premier Cru and Village Cru. I think 2018 will be a fascinating vintage as there is variation for the yields, harvest date and vinification was challenging due to some cuvées did not want to finish their sugars, especially for the last tanks. The alcoholic fermentation was not problematic." The 2018s show promise and will not present any radical changes for those accustomed to the traditional style of Domaine des Lambrays.