Domaine Taupenot-Merme Clos des Lambrays 2021
We have 3 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
The Land
Clos des Lambrays is nearly, but not quite, a monopole. Domaine des Lambrays, owned by LVMH since 2014, holds all but a small slice of the 8.84-hectare walled vineyard, and Taupenot-Merme farms that slice. The clos rises behind Morey-Saint-Denis between roughly 250 and 370 meters, facing east and southeast, and falls into three sections: Meix Rentier at the bottom on heavier clay and loam, Les Larrets across the well-drained middle, and Les Bouchots at the top, cooled by air from the Combe de Morey. First cited in the deeds of Cîteaux Abbey in 1365, it was only promoted from premier cru to grand cru on April 27, 1981. That makes a bottle of this Morey-Saint-Denis grand cru from anyone other than Domaine des Lambrays a genuine rarity.
The Wine
Domaine Taupenot-Merme Clos des Lambrays 2021 is 100% Pinot Noir, given the domaine's highest share of new wood, up to 40 percent. The fruit is fully destemmed, cold-soaked for about 10 days, and fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, then aged 12 to 15 months in lightly toasted barrels and bottled unfined. Expect red and black cherry, rose petal, sweet spice and an iron-tinged mineral edge, carried on fine, tight tannin and a long, cool finish. The 2021 season was cool, cloudy and wet, with mildew a constant threat and harvest arriving late, around the September equinox. The Côte de Nuits escaped the worst of the April frost, and potential alcohol landed in a classic 12.2 to 13.5 percent range.
The People
Few growers can say a grand cru starts at their back door. The Taupenot-Merme house and cellar sit just above the Route des Grands Crus as it passes through Morey-Saint-Denis, and the steep slope rising behind them is Clos des Lambrays. This is the Merme side of the family's home ground: Denise Merme's father, Armand Merme, and Jean Taupenot's father, René, acquired and planted much of the vineyard the domaine farms today. When Kermit Lynch took on the domaine, the importer had not carried a Morey grower in decades. Romain Taupenot now farms all of it organically, as he has since 2001, with hand harvesting and heavy sorting. Kermit Lynch sums up the house style as richness with freshness, resting on the quality of the sites.
Food Pairing
A grand cru with this much perfume deserves food that will not shout over it. Roast venison loin with juniper, celery root purée and a red wine reduction meets the wine's dark fruit and iron edge while the tannin handles lean, rare meat. A veal chop with morels in cream works because the acidity cuts the sauce and the mushrooms echo the wine's earthy side. Beef tenderloin roasted simply with shallots and thyme lets the fruit lead. Close with a piece of Brillat-Savarin, whose richness the acidity slices clean. This is the bottle for the anniversary dinner you have been planning for months.
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Burgundy, in eastern France, encompasses several subregions, but it is the Côte d'Or that is home to many of the world's most expensive and revered wines. The region, primarily a single east-facing slope, has mixed limestone soils that vary dramatically from village to village and even vineyard to vineyard. White wines, crafted from Chardonnay, range from rich and opulent to lean and intensely mineral, while Pinot Noir produces silky, perfumed red wines of exceptional finesse and complexity. Centuries of winemaking tradition have resulted in every plot being meticulously recognized and scrutinized, making the Côte d'Or a true capital of terroir.
Burgundy - Cote d'Or
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, notoriously difficult-to-grow, low-yielding grape that finds its ancestral home in Burgundy, France, where it produces some of the world's most elegant and nuanced wines. While Burgundy remains its spiritual heartland, Pinot Noir has since traveled the globe, finding success in other cooler climates, notably in California, Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany. This grape is a challenge for any grower, as it requires specific conditions to show its best, and yet the wines it produces are capable of such a captivating and singular character.
