2023 Morey-Saint-Denis Village

Estate director Jacques Devauges greeted me on a rather foggy autumnal morning at Domaine de Lambrays, of course now part of the LVMH “empire” (they had bought the land of Domaine Poisot just a month earlier, though the Poisot family will continue making the wine, which includes Romanée-Saint-Vivant that Devauges used to make when he was at Domaine de l’Arlot). In the meantime, we had the 2023 vintage to examine…

“It has been a very interesting vintage as we had to face unusual challenges – dealing with generous quantities and controlling that. We did a green harvest, which we don’t like to do as you always aim to create a natural balance. But nature decides and made green harvesting necessary. This was done at the end of July. It was hard looking at the bunches on the floor and I wondered if it was a mistake. We left around seven bunches, but it changed depending on the vine. You need a knowledgeable team to do that.”

“The season was sunny with sufficient water at every key step of the way,” he continued. “Budburst was April 7 and flowering June 7. We had very good conditions – it was sunny and dry. Afterwards there was a good amount of rain, then it returned to dry weather until the beginning of July. It began to rain just when the berries were growing [which made them larger than normal in size]. At the end of August, it turned a bit cold and not very sunny, plus it was a little humid. At that point, I was expecting a vintage a bit like 2011, a bit early and not necessarily ripe. Then the weather changed. It was sunny and very warm so that finally, we ended up something more like 2018. I called my pickers and asked them to come earlier and we started picking the reds on September 7. The whites began on September 1.”

I ask Devauges his opinion on the vintage. “I think 2023 will be heterogenous with a diversity in style due to the volume of grapes. You know, the Grand Crus in Morey-Saint-Denis and Chambolle-Musigny asked the INAO to increase the maximum legal yield for the Grand Cru. Clos des Lambrays was the only Grand Cru that didn’t. We finished at 41 hl/ha, so we were successful in balancing the volume in the end.”

This is always a fascinating visit. I always look forward to my exchanges with Devauges, this year, discussing the influence of whole bunches. Readers can see the percentage of stems per cuvée in the tasting notes, but it is interesting to note that the 11 parcels that combine to form the Clos de Lambrays include everything from totally destemmed fruit to 100% whole bunch. I feel that the stems swayed the Clos Baulets whereas the Clos Sorbet assimilated them far better.