Sandquist Europe Blog

Morey-St-Denis, Burgundy

On January 22nd I visited with Kellen Lignier at Domaine Lucie et Auguste Lignier in Morey-St-Denis.  It was a brisk mid-afternoon when I met Kellen at the cellars in the courtyard of the Castel de Très Girard Hotel.  She had just finished doing some pruning in the vineyard across the road that runs in front of the winery, and we chatted while waiting for a private client of hers to join us.

Kellen described how the winery used to be the Cave Cooperative for Morey-St-Denis, and that her husband’s family had been installed there since the 1980s.  Kellen’s husband was Romain Lignier, the son of Hubert Lignier, and one of the top young winemakers in Morey-St-Denis.  I remember meeting him once in the early 1990s with a Canadian wine importer friend of mine.  Romain was clearly a passionate and inquisitive winemaker, with that rare combination of immense talent and ambition.  All of the Côte d’Or mourned Romain’s passing with profound sadness.

Romain died tragically from a brain tumor in 2004.  Kellen has since taken on the task of running the winery, although this wasn’t completely embraced by Kellen’s father-in-law, from what I have heard.  I didn’t know how comfortable Kellen would feel talking about Romain’s death and the challenges thereafter, so I didn’t ever bring it up.  At one point she did say that she felt Romain’s cancer was a product of the different chemical treatments the Domaine used to employ.  Romain had started the eradication of chemicals, and Kellen has continued such that, at present, chemicals are no longer in the picture.  This requires a good deal of hand work in the vineyards and Kellen has a few full and part-time help to keep the vines in pristeen order.

The Vineyards

The Domaine has just about 8.5 hectares( 21 acres ) of vines to look after, spread between the villages of Chambolle-Musigny and Fixin, along the Côte de Nuits.  Kellen makes the whole range of appellation wines, from Bourgogne Rouge and Bourgogne Passetoutgrains through Village, Premier Cru and Grand Cru.  Here is the list of different wines made by Kellen and her team:

Regional Appellation:

Bourgogne Aligoté

Bourgogne Passetoutgrains

Bourgogne Rouge

Village Appellation:

Chambolle-Musigny “Les Bussières”

Morey-St-Denis “Vieilles Vignes”

Morey-St-Denis “Les Sionnières”

Gevrey-Chambertin “Les Seuvrées”

Fixin “Champs de Vosger”

Premier Cru Appellation:

Chambolle-Musigny “Les Baudes”

Morey-St-Denis “La Riotte” (last vintage was 2006, this now gets blended with the “Cuvée Romain Lignier”)

Morey-St-Denis “Les Chaffots”

Morey-St-Denis “Cuvée Romain Lignier”

Gevrey-Chambertin “Aux Combottes”

Grand Cru Appellation:

Clos de la Roche

Charmes-Chambertin

As you can see, it’s a wide variety of great and very good vineyards.

The Tasting

After waiting a little while we ended up starting the tasting without our third participant.  We started the tasting with the 2008 Passetoutgrain and Bourgogne which were progressing in stainless tanks on the ground level.  Although a touch cold, they both showed very well, fresh, fruity and luscious, with good balance.

We then descended into the barrel cellar and tasted through several of the Village and Premier Cru appellations, finishing with the Clos de la Roche.

The wines tasted really well, despite the cold.  Her vineyards have vines with good age on them, this is apparent in the complexity and lush mouth-feel of many of her wines.  Their was excellent terroir definition and although the Domaine uses a fair amount of new oak – about 50% on average – it was well integrated.  Kellen makes her wines with as little intervention as necessary.  The focus is mainly on growing beautiful grapes and making sure only the healthiest get into the fermentation vats.  She makes wines that age well and slowly develop into fine Burgundy to be enjoyed with friends or family around a great meal.  Here is an interesting plus: She carefully allots her wine and keeps some back so she can release small offerings as the wines reach their peak drinking period.

I was impressed with her wines, but also with her determination to carry on with her late-husband’s aim of producing great Burgundy, and building an important legacy for Lucie and Auguste.

Drouhin-Laroze Ad from 1943 Appellation Encyclopedia

Gevrey-Chambertin

Drouhin-Laroze is a Domaine in Gevrey-Chambertin with a very good reputation and an excellent list of different appellations that includes several Grand Crus.  Before going to the Domaine near the end of last month, I had visited on two other occasions, once in the early 1990s while cycling through the village, and a second time in August 2001, cycling again, when I stopped there with a few travelers I was hosting from a large investment firm.  On the two previous visits I only saw the caveau/tasting room on the ground level, as the visits were quite impromptu.  This time I was stunned by the size of the property.  The site is a full hectare in size (2.4 acres) with cellars and outbuildings amidst a beautiful grounds.

The Domaine is now run by Christine and Philippe Drouhin and Christine was our hostess for the visit.  We initially visited the bottle storing cellars which are quite beautiful, having been renovated in the early 2000s.  The Domaine was busy bottling some 2008s in a different building on site and filling the concrete bins in this cellar with unlabeled bottles.  Mme Drouhin then showed us the barrel cellars, a short walk away.  These cellars were equally beautiful and quite unique in that they are two levels deep.  Barrels aged here are from the Domaine as well as the negociant/broker business that Christine and Philippe’s daughter has recently started.

Our third stop on the visit was the caveau/tasting room where Mme. Drouhin has also started a small table d’hôtes :table d’hotes: n. (French) meaning “table of the host” meal option that offers full meal with limited choice of food for a fixed price.

Moray Tawse, Christine Drouhin, Paul Pender at Domaine Drouhin-Laroze

This allows clients to have a simple, Burgundian meal paired with the wines of the Domaine.  A great idea that also exists elsewhere in the Côte d’Or, perhaps most successfully at Maison Leflaive in Puligny-Montrachet.  Mme. Drouhin said she started this small restaurant because of her love of cooking and as such she does all the cooking herself.  It’s open seasonally and I look forward to eating here when it re-opens in the Spring.

1978 Chambertin Clos de Bèze, Domaine Drouhin-Laroze, tasted in March 2008

Jean-Marie Fourrier flanked by elite Ontario winemakers

Gevrey-Chambertin is one of the iconic villages on the Côte de Nuits.  It may be the most widely known, and is often the first village wine lovers discover when they start to drink red Burgundy.  This is certainly my case, and I clearly remember Gevrey-Chambertin village and 1er cru wines getting serious attention during my first summer in Beaune in 1987.  We were drinking a great deal of 1979 Gevreys that summer, and they were delicious! I was also fortunate enough to eat at least a half dozen times that season at Les Millésimes, a top restaurant that remained a fovourite right up until it closed in the summer of 2004.  Didier Sangoy introduced me to my first Clos St-Jacques in September 1987.  I’ve been poor ever since.

Thursday before last, January 21st, I was able to book two excellent tastings for an Ontario winery that was passing through these parts, looking for equipment and visiting a few Domaines.

Lunch:

Our first tasting was at 2:30 pm with Jean-Marie Fourrier, but, before that, the lunch spot bears mentioning.  We had lunch at Chez Guy in the village.  It is a very nice bistrot style restaurant right in the centre of town.  Here you will find a good selection of different regional dishes, and a very good winelist.  We actually phoned our order in early so we could be in and out fairly quickly.  They handled this special request perfectly.  The dishes were very good – escargots, wild salmon, dorade and poularde de Bresse.  The wine was outstanding.  It was a lean and minerally, long and seductive Corton-Charlemagne from 2006 (Christophe Roumier).  Super bottle at the perfect temperature.  Best ‘06 white Burgundy I’ve had to date, I think.

Then it was off to Fourrier.  I had tasted here in July of 2004, when hosted by Jean Marie’s wife Vicki.  I was invited by two close friends, one of which is no longer alive, so, for me, returning to Fourrier had a pilgrimage-like poignancy.  Our visit was eye-opening then, I expected it to be equally great this time.  Jean-Marie met us in the courtyard and we walked through to the back where we could survey vineyards behind the winemaking facility.  J-M pointed out a number of their vineyards  and gave us some insight into work on the vines.  You get the sense early on that J-M has a very analytical mind and has been thinking deeply about how great wine is made, for many, many years.  Every stage of grape growing and winemaking has been thoroughly examined and continues to be each year, because no two growing seasons are exactly alike.

We tasted four 2008s from vat: a Gevrey-Chambertin villages and three 1er crus – Les Goulots, Champeaux and Clos St-Jacques.  Each was excellent in its own way.  The Clos St-Jacques stole the show but all showed definition, finesse and great length and lusciousness.  We then went to the bottle cellar and tasted two 2007s – a lovely Vougeot Les Petits Vougeots 1er cru and a Gevrey-Chambertin Combe aux Moines 1er cru.  Both showed beautifully, even in the cold cellar.  Fruit, energy, finesse and length, all wrapped together.

What ends up in the glass is a pure expression of terroir, with as little interference as possible by the winemaker.

Jean-Marie Fourrier’s wines that I have tasted have always shown great balance, lush mouth-feel, and beautiful fruit and energy.  I think he is doing terrific work.