Profile: Domaine François Lamarche (Vosne-Romanée)

Update 7.10.2009(31.7.2009)billn

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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

François Lamarche was the 5th generation of Lamarche to farm the domaine’s vines in Vosne-Romanée. The domaine has roots to 1797 but on the maternal side the family go back as far as 1740 in the village. Now a 6th generation is taking over, ‘generation six’ are Nathalie who responsible for ‘commercialisation’ and her cousin Nicole who takes care of the vini/viti-cultural aspects.

Although most commentators suggest this to be a domaine on an upward swing of quality, a majority were been far from restrained in their criticism of the quality of the domaine’s wines from the 1970s right through to the 1990s. If the family Lamarche were based in Nuits, you would hear little from the critics, but the name-plate vineyard of the domaine is their 1.65 hectare monopoly of the vines called called La Grande Rue, and these vines sit between the ‘rock’ that is Romanée-Conti, and the ‘hard place’ that is La Tâche.

There is no accounting for ‘terroir’, in many parts of the Côte d’Or, village vines stand shoulder-to-shoulder with grand cru vines, but there’s no getting away from the fact, whatever the vagaries of geology, that expectations are sky-high, and for many years those expectations were not met.

An older generation pointed to wonderful wines from the 1930s to the 1970s, and it seems that any neglect began during the later years of (generation 4) Henri Lamarche’s life (b. 1903, d.1985), when neighbours were wont to point to insufficiently tended vines.

There was also an urban myth about the planting of inferior vines in La Grande Rue, the source of which was an article in a French publication; ‘Cuisine et vins de France‘ (1987). The article was published with particularly galling timing for the family as the application for the raising of La Grande Rue to grand cru status was pending. Domaine Lamarche hired a vine expert in order to prove that there was no ‘pinot droit’ (a higher yielding clone now out of favour, but with significant plantings in the 1960s) and a lawyer to force the issue. The magazine subsequently printed both a retraction and an apology – it is, however, the nature of things that the article is remembered more than the apology. If the domaine’s average vine age figures are correct, however, then much of the domaine was replanted in the early 1970s, which would not have gone hand in hand with having the best quality.

The changing of a vineyard classification.

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The INAO announced on 14 November, 1989 its decision that La Grande Rue should be promoted from 1er cru to grand cru status. For various reasons the official decree was only signed on 2 July, 1992. Such a change in status is retroactive, so bottles of pre-1992 La Grande Rue if released by the domaine could have a grand cru label – I assume not too many people call up for older bottles to be relabeled though.

Clearly such a change is very rare indeed; the Clos des Lambrays went through a similar process with the final decree of ‘grand cru’ being bestowed in 1981. There are lengthy soil analyses to confirm that a candidate has what it takes from a geological perspective, relative to its more imperious neighbours. It is the land that gets the classification, showing that it has the possibility to produce grand cru wine, it is not the wines themselves that are under test.

You may then reasonably ask; ‘if the soil/geology was always okay, why wasn’t the vineyard classed as a grand cru when all the other ones were?‘ Politics is the usual answer, though more often it is why an application fails. It is said that some say the owners in the 1920s and 1930s may not have wanted to pay the higher taxes that would come from a higher ‘value’ applied to their land so never applied for grand cru status. It is anyway a very rare thing. The owners of the Nuits St.Georges 1er cru ‘Les St.Georges’ are banding together trying to raise their vines to grand cru classification, likely this will found on the politics – not because the vineyard necessarily shouldn’t be a grand cru, but more likely because other growers will object, saying if that is grand cru, then this should also be grand cru…

Their vines and Wines

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The domaine farms 11 hectares of 14 appellations – 8 hectares are owned, the rest are on long-term leases – ‘en fermage’. There are gem-like holdings at this property, and not just La Grande Rue. There is also Grands-Echézeaux from an adjoining parcel to Drouhin’s, 3 parcels of Clos de Vougeot that are blended. Echézeaux (from the climats of Cruots and Clos St.Denis), premier cru vines in Chaumes, Malconsorts, Suchots and La Croix Rameau (of which they are one of only three producers) and there is also a new (since 2006) premier ‘Cras’ from just over the boundary into Nuits. There are, of-course village and regional sites too.

VineyardHolding (ha)Vine Age
La Grande Rue1.6530
Clos de Vougeot1.3530
Grands-Echézeaux0.3130
Echézeaux1.3530
Vosne-Romanée 1er La Croix Rameau0.2140
Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Malconsorts0.5040
Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Chaumes0.5640
Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots0.5840
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Les Cras0.3840
Vosne-Romanée0.8940
Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits1.5330
Bourgogne Passetoutgrain0.6430
Bourgogne Aligoté0.3230
Bourgogne0.8735

The philosophy of the domaine today, is to harvest everything by hand; some sorting is done by the pickers in the vineyard before the fruit moves over vibrating then sorting tables.

The grapes are predominantly de-stemmed (perhaps as much as 20% may be retained for the grand crus) before being placed into the thermo-regulated (up to 32-33°C) open-top fermentation vats – a mix of oak and stainless-steel – without crushing. Only the Passetoutgrains sees no wooden tanks for fermentation. All movement of wine is by gravity. A few days of cool maceration and 15-18 days of fermentation. The domain likes to avoid chaptalisation, indeed there was none in the 2002, 2003 and 2005 vintages.

The wines evolve in oak barrels from different (Vosges, Alliers) sources, of which 60% to 100% are new barrels – depending on the vintage and appellation. Typically no fining or filtering is done, the exception being the regional cuvées. Everything is bottled at the domaine – Nathalie’s grandfather Henri Lamarche was the first to bottle – and stored in their new bottle cellar.

On May 30th 2009 I took a short tour of the rabbit-warren of cellars with Nathalie Lamarche where we took in a few 2008 barrel samples of mainly pre-malo wines; the team chose not to use much new oak in 2008 and produced a good length villages Vosne, a Suchots with a more penetrating nose and more tannin, a Malconsorts that showed more impact and penetration and also length.

Moving through to the grand cru cellar I tried a Clos de Vougeot that had plenty of impact and finally La Grande Rue – penetrating red berry aromas coupled to more dimension and length. It was nice to see how they fit together from a hierarchy perspective though such notes are not to be taken as a reference points for for how the post-malolactic wines will taste!

2007 François Lamarche, La Grande Ruetry to find this wine...
A 7th September harvest and lots of triage – only about 60% the number of bottles versus an ‘average’ harvest. One year in barrel and a relatively early bottling ‘to keep the fruits’. Medium cherry red colour. The red shaded cherry fruit is a little candied and slowly builds a width of of understated spice notes. Plenty of volume in the mouth, and whilst offering up savoury aspects, they have a creamy coating – the flavours slowly insinuating into your palate. Really super length that has a hint of oak wedded to creamy fruit – there’s a little oak texture too, but you can see that it’s already fading. This is a fine grand cru.
2001 François Lamarche, La Grande Ruetry to find this wine...
Relatively young, medium intensity colour. The nose is a wild and really interesting melange of fruits – both baked and fresh – totally different to the 07, and just begs a wide-bowled wine-glass. On the palate it is fresh and shares a similar ‘volume’ to the 2007. Understated velvet tannin and good acidity. The finishing flavours are a little savoury and there’s some oak flavour in there too – though no oak texture. Faintly long – I was expecting more, but then comes a nice reprise so I was sated. This wine built width and dimension in the glass, so next time open earlier or decant. Lovely stuff.
A Critique of La Grande Rue?

Well it is very easy to take a critical stance; the vines lie in the purest heart of Vosne-Romanée, surrounded by La Tâche, La Romanée and La Romanée-Conti and clearly, La Grande Rue doesn’t have the scale of any of those wines. It is like Clos de Lambrays next to Clos de Tart, elegant, certainly not forceful though it clearly brims with complexity and length – in that respect it is closer to Romanée-Conti than it is to La Tâche.

It is worth pointing out that the price of La Grande Rue is also a fraction of that of its neighbours – based on what’s in the glass, I see plenty of value. There remains, however, the valid question; ‘could it be better?’ The slope and clay soil looks the same as for the surrounding vines – certainly those of La Tâche – but what’s below the soil is hard to see, and clearly even different plots within La Tâche will produce very different wines. Most commentators assume that further progress is possible, but that’s all they agree on!

In general, the pricing of the domaine’s wines is correct and the small sample (2005 onwards) that I have met have been equally ‘correct’ with no undue oak – which some people comment on. I have already added a few bottles to my cellar.

I asked Nathalie if she could define her impression of La Grande Rue – it seems a good fit:

“Never forcefull. Complex, fruity and elegant. Always understated tannin – you should wait 10-15 years to drink it. It always evolves its expression – it’s not there at the start”

Domaine François Lamarche
9, rue des Communes – 21700 Vosne Romanée
E-mail: vins.lamarche@wanadoo.fr
Tel. +33 380 610 794
Fax +33 380 612 431
http://www.domaine-lamarche.com/

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There are 12 responses to “Profile: Domaine François Lamarche (Vosne-Romanée)”

  1. Kevin Harvey31st July 2009 at 6:22 pmPermalinkReply

    Great article Bill.
    I am intrigued by the “plant material” debate around La Grand Rue. When I was there in August of 2007, the grapes and clusters in La Grand Rue looked much larger and higher yielding than the surrounding DRC vines. Is it possible that the vine material is not Pinot Droit but still not as good as it could/should be for a terroir of such potential?

    • billn1st August 2009 at 8:43 amPermalinkReply

      Hi Kevin.
      Clearly it is conjecture as to the actual vine stock or clones that they have. I know Louis-Michel was also unhappy with some of the vines in LR so he kept the old feet and grafted new material on top – so if Lamarche’s vines are not the pinnacle of quality then Lamarche were not alone in that. I note that (from memory) the typical Lamarche yields were 30-32-ish in LGR, whereas DRC usually produce 22-28 across their range – I suppose that could in-large-part be attributed to larger grapes/clusters as you describe.
      Cheers

  2. Chris Kissack31st July 2009 at 7:53 pmPermalinkReply

    Thanks Bill for this interesting write-up. Did you taste any other vintages, now or previously? I have some 2003s in the cellar, Echezeaux and Clos de Vougeot if I recall correctly. Or would you care to speculate based on tastings of otehr 2003s?

    • billn1st August 2009 at 8:45 amPermalinkReply

      Hi Chris
      I never tasted an 03 Lamarche. Given my general lack of enthusiasm for the vintage and no view on how they may have coped with the elements, it’s probably best that I offer no comment!
      Bill

  3. Chris Kissack1st August 2009 at 10:33 amPermalinkReply

    Thanks Bill. The simple answer is I should open and try one, it’s just a question of finding the right moment. Broadly I agree with your generalisation on the vintage, and certainly what white wines I have tried have been almost universally disappointing. I think in many French regions though there was more variability in the reds, with one or two great wines made amongst all the less enthralling (being kind) bottles. This is certainly the case in Bordeaux. Have you had nothing from the 2003 vintage at all that has enticed you to buy?

    • billn1st August 2009 at 10:56 amPermalinkReply

      I have had very lovely wines form 2003 Chris – Ponsot exemplifies a great result. And the vintage backdrop was plenty of hype from producers and critics like Rovani/TWA.

      I think that I have less 03 in my cellar than any vintage 96-07, but I chose to buy my normal mixed cases from regular sources and added a few (potentially) top wines. I just moved onto 04 and didn’t buy anything else. I hardly ever open bottles though – it’s like the vintage has dropped from my radar!

      If the wines do turn out great, at least I have a modest few cases, but given that ’47 was an often-used comparison, I may not live long enough to see their prime…

      Let us know how you get on with an 03!
      Bill

  4. phil eaves3rd August 2009 at 10:11 amPermalinkReply

    Bill had a quick peek at my 1985 and the label has changed very little no mention of Grand Cru (Obviously) but it does say
    Tete de Cuvee Monopole Appellation Vosne Romanee Controlee with no mention of its 1er status at that time, does this now mean its a Grand Cru wine ? This would appear to be strange even by Burgundy standards?

    Phil

    • billn3rd August 2009 at 10:43 amPermalinkReply

      Yes – it’s retrospective – so even though you have nothing indicating such on the label, it is technically a GC. If you bought a bottle of ’85 from the domaine (assuming they have any), it would certainly be wearing a GC label…

  5. jayd12th August 2009 at 12:01 pmPermalinkReply

    as much as i do like the domaine and appreciate the good bottles of lamarche i have experienced in the past i must agree with kevin. for my eyes….
    pre (and during) last harvest there was a marked difference between the crop on gr and rc beside……and given the closeness of terroirs………..mmmm
    the plants look very different there is no doubt.
    it was also mindboggling to see (and impressive) what drc left behind right next to it in la tache afterwards.
    la gr is still a mystery if you ask me….
    potential probably not quite realised just yet.
    it is an anomalie really so why arent you building your vertical stocks why it is still so realistically priced?????
    (if you are lucky enough to have the spare $)
    look out for this in the new hands.

    • billn12th August 2009 at 1:19 pmPermalinkReply

      I agree on ‘potential’ jayd. I’m not sure that new hands would necessarily make a boat-load of difference though (it’s anyway a relatively new regime) – if it’s the plant material, you’ll anyway have to wait a lot of years for major improvement.

      Spare dollars (francs) it is. Actually I could go out and buy a nice mini vertical of 04-07 tomorrow from the main importer – and I would but for one thing – the wines are only sold in (minimum) cases of 6, so that’s rather expensive, despite bottle prices ranging from 120 (2004 – cheapest) to 180 (2005 – most expensive) chf, and that 180 is rather cheap in the context of other wines from the vintage.

      Anyway, now’s not the time for laying out that amount of cash.
      Cheers

  6. John Thomson11th October 2009 at 6:23 pmPermalinkReply

    Bill

    I’m in burgundy in a couple of weeks and have an appointment at Lamarche. I’m looking forward to it having been quite a fan of their wines for a while. Does Nathalie conduct the lastings and does she speak English?.

    BW

    John

    • billn12th October 2009 at 4:59 amPermalinkReply

      Hi John,
      Nathalie did indeed conduct the tour/tasting on my visit – you will need a some French to help oil the wheels (share the pain!)
      Cheers, Bill

  7. Daniel10th December 2009 at 3:48 pmPermalinkReply

    How about its La Grand Rue? Mr Clive Cotes gave 2005 2006 very high ratings, and the prices seem not so high, all of which arouse my interests to buy。。。。

  8. stefano14th December 2010 at 3:02 amPermalinkReply

    Hi
    Your comments on the vine variety is very interesting a I also noticed that the grapes look quite different from those of the DRC. I guess the the bio dynamic approach of the latter might also be part of the explanation… as it seems that Lamarche is still using herbicides to clear weeds.
    I had the chance to taste a LGR 99, that was very delicate, complex and long. A very nice expression of Pinot noir. I went to the Domaine twice to recuperate my 04 and 05’s. I admit that after that vintage, I was a bit angry at the price surge on the 05’s and I did not come back (about 50% increase from 04 to 05…). On both vintages, I bought LGR, Clos Vougeot and the Malconsorts. The only one I tasted since is the Malconsort 04 which I really enjoyed: it was a rather concentrated, very much Vosne-like as it should be with plenty of spices and length.
    Better then the Thomas Moillard I tasted (96, 99, 01) and a couple of notches underneath the Cathiard’s one (97, 98). But for the price, it is a very good wine that let you dream, when you close your eyes, that you are dipping your lips in a close cousin of La Tache…
    S

  9. Sulen14th August 2012 at 8:41 amPermalinkReply

    can i have the back label of Lamarche 2010 La Grande Rue please?

  10. antoine22nd April 2014 at 4:18 pmPermalinkReply

    anybody tasted the croix rameau. Is it to RSV what Grand rue is to la Tache?

  11. Peter Bamford28th April 2014 at 7:52 pmPermalinkReply

    Sadly, I’ve never tasted La Tache. Have had a bottle of 2005 La Croix Rameau over the last two nights, though. From first sniff it showed as overwhelmingly concentrated. Even the very high acidity couldn’t hide much of that obvious GG-level concentration on the palate. Still some thickness of material present, and the tannin grips the teeth a little on opening. So, there was too much of everything… but hence the wine is actually in balance! It needs to do a lot of graceful subsiding; it’s 4-10 years away from sensible drinking. It was drinkable after the 3 hour double-decant, but was distractingly saturating and intense, regardless of food. Not much progress with the remains on day 2. I like the components, though, so am very much looking forward to a calmer experience (and aromatic development) down the road.

  12. antoine5th May 2014 at 2:22 pmPermalinkReply

    Thanks Peter, I just bought some 2012 of this. Hope it will be good (I already know from his book that this is Bill’s preferred 1er cru in the whole of cote de nuits…)

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