Clos des Lambrays
The Clos des Lambrays is a Grand Cru classified vineyard on the Côte d'Or in French Burgundy . It is located in the municipality of Morey-Saint-Denis and has its own appellation . This covers an area of 8.6975 hectares. Only red wine is produced . The vineyard is actually enclosed by a wall, making it a real " Clos ".
Location, climate and soil
The Clos des Lambrays is located on a gently rising eastern slope at 280 to 320 m above sea level. In the north it touches the Clos Saint-Denis , to the south the Clos de Tart joins it. The Clos des Lambrays is almost a monopoly owned by the Domaine des Lambrays , only a tiny 4.2 ares large parcel belongs to the Domaine Taupenot .
The climate is that of Burgundy - a transitional climate in which continental over maritime influences predominate. The mostly dry and hot summers allow the Pinot Noir to ripen, but great vintages are only created when there is no rain in autumn to impair the harvest. Due to the purely eastern location, the microclimate is relatively cool, but at the same time protected from late frosts.
The bottom of the Clos des Lambrays is anything but homogeneous. The deepest part has a heavy, loamy- chalky soil, it gives the wine strength and a solid backbone. The upper part, on the other hand, contains a lot of marl and provides the finesse. The Clos des Lambrays consists of several Climats : Les Larrets , Lambray , Les Bouchot and Meix reindeer .
Wine
The Clos des Lambrays is actually made exclusively from Pinot Noir . As more varieties are Pinot Liébault and Pinot Beurot admitted. Theoretically, up to 15% white grapes ( Chardonnay , Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc ) can be used. The natural alcohol content must be at least 11.5% by volume, chaptalization is allowed - as everywhere in Burgundy. The basic yield is 35 hectoliters per hectare, this may be exceeded by a maximum of 20%. The planting density is also prescribed : between 9,000 and 13,000 vines per hectare must be planted. From 2000 to 2004, an average of 279 hectoliters was produced. Since only 7.9 ha were in production, the yield was a good 35 hl / ha. The Grand Cru thus delivered a good 36,000 bottles per year.
The current owners have the handpicked grapes re-sorted before fermentation, but not destemmed. The fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks and lasts 15-18 days. The wine is vinified separately according to parcel, up to half of the harvest - not only in difficult vintages - is declassified and marketed as Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru . The aging takes 18 months and takes place in oak barrels , which are renewed annually to 60-75%. The Clos des Lambrays is only with egg white before bottling fined . .
The Clos des Lambrays is a classy and at the same time fine wine with great longevity. In the nose initially dominated cherry, then blackberry prevails. There are also aromas of humus, undergrowth and truffles . Smoked meat notes are also characteristic. As it ripens, it becomes more delicate and develops notes of spices and (dried) flowers.
history
The origins of the Clos des Lambrays go back to the Middle Ages. In the middle of the 14th century, a Clos de Lambrey was mentioned in Morey , named after a noble family that has been documented since the 12th century. The Abbey of Cîteaux had rights there, but the vineyard itself probably did not belong to it. The property was auctioned after the French Revolution and was divided among numerous owners by the middle of the 19th century. The cadastre from 1828 lists 75 parcels. The wine was sold under the names of the individual climats, with the wine from Les Lambrays being considered the best. Then the Négociant (wine merchant) Louis Joly stepped on the scene. By the middle of the 19th century he bought almost all the parcels together. In 1866 everything was sold to the Négociant Albert-Sébastien Rodier from Morey, who established the name “Clos des Lambrays” as a brand towards the end of the 19th century. When the heirs ran into financial difficulties, the Parisian banker's wife Renée Cosson stepped into the breach. She had an affair with Albert Rodier , the grandson of Albert-Sébastien, and acquired the estate in 1938. Albert vinified the Clos des Lambrays until 1950. Renée Cosson jealously watched over her wine, economic considerations were alien to her. In the vineyard there were still unrooted vines , dead vines were not replaced. The yields were therefore extremely low (rarely above 10 hl / ha). The wine often stayed in the barrel for years before bottling. When Grands Crus was first determined in the 1930s, the Clos des Lambrays was also left out due to a lack of initiative from its owners. Camille Rodier , Albert-Sébastien's second grandson and co-founder of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin , always advocated the Clos des Lambrays.
Renée Cosson died in 1977. The residents of Morey-Saint-Denis mockingly called the vineyard "clos délabré" (decrepit vineyard). In 1979 a corporation led by the brothers Fabien and Louis Saier, who were active in the wine business, acquired the Clos des Lambrays for 10 million francs. They hired the young oenologist Thierry Brouhin as cellar master, who has been working for the Domaine des Lambrays ever since. On April 27, 1981, the Clos des Lambrays was raised to the status of a Grand Cru. The new owners undertook to keep the proportion of old vines high, which is why only 2.44 hectares were newly planted. They also replaced dead vines, so that a total of half of the Clos was renewed in the first ten years. The investments totaled twice the purchase price. Economic difficulties forced the owners to sell the property in the mid-1990s. In 1996 the German industrialist Günter Freund from Koblenz took over the Domaine des Lambrays together with his son Hans-Joachim. With the quality policy they pursued (low yields, strict selection), they have since consolidated the status of the Clos des Lambrays as a Grand Cru.
References
literature
- Jean-François Bazin: Chambertin. La Côte de Nuits de Dijon à Chambolle-Musigny . Jacques Legrand, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-905969-32-6
- Benoît France (ed.): Grand Atlas des Vignobles de France . Solar, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-263-03242-8
- Michel Mastrojanni: Le Grand Livre du Bourgogne . Solar, Paris 1995, ISBN 2-263-02181-7
- Robert Petronio: De Gevrey à Morey. Lectures de la Côte de Nuits in Revue du Vin de France No. 508, February 2007, pp. 42–45
- Vertical sample of the Chambertin of the Domaine Armand Rousseau and the Clos des Lambrays . - James Turnbull: Bourgogne Grandeur Nature . Éditions EPA, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-85120-524-2