~ Domaine Leroy ~

Maison Leroy was founded in 1868 by François Leroy in the small village of Auxey-Duresses. It was his son Joseph Leroy, assisted by his wife Louise Curteley who expanded the business and established Leroy's reputation as a source of fine wine, many of which were awarded gold medals at the end of the 19th century.

Henri Leroy entered the family business in 1919 and expanded the portfolio of Leroy to include eau-de-vie at Gensac La Pallue, establishing a distillery near Segonzac. During the 1930`s he became a valued customer of Domaine (Domaine de la Romanee-Conti) and a close friend with its co-owner Edmond Gaudin de Villaine. It seems hard to believe now, but at that time many winemakers were impoverished and it seemed inevitable that the owners would be forced to sell its monopole holdings. In 1942, the other co-owner Jacques Chambon sold his share to Henri Leroy, which meant that the Domaine (Domaine de la Romanee-Conti) could continue unchanged, although it was not until the 1950`s that he took a hands-on role in its management.

Henri had two daughters the younger of whom Marcelle took a great interest in her father`s negotiant business that she eventually took over in 1955, by which time she was know by her present name: Lalou. She was just 23 years old: ambitious, temperamental, pugnacious and gifted. In 1974 she took over co-management of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, working alongside the placid Aubert de Villaine. The relationship was volatile, with two such diametrically opposed characters forced to inhabit the confines of one domaine. The walls must have eavesdropped on many protracted quarrels about how the Domaine (Domaine de la Romanee-Conti) should be run and in particular, their distribution of wines around the world. In 1991 Lalou was unceremoniously fired: one of the persons voting her off the board was her own sister. Just to rub salt into the wounds, her daughter is in the employ of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

But Lalou was not left high and dry. In April 1988 she had acquired significant holding (around 12 hectares) of prime vineyard from Domaine Charles Noëllat including rows of Grand Cru vines that had been left moribund over many years. Such soil does not come cheap, so she had to find financial backing, which came from the Far East, the Japanese company Takashimaya. Lalou had the bit between her teeth and in the following year augmented her acquisition with vines from Domaine Philippe Remy that included prize plots in Chambertin and Clos-de-la-Roche.

This created a conflict of interest with Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and it was only a matter of time before they parted ways. Subsequent to her departure from the Domaine, Lalou made further purchases of land that had belonged to her uncle, including a farm above Saint Romain where she now lives with her husband. The wine produced on this land is sold under the name Domaine d`Auvenay and included vines in Chevalier-Montrachet, Bonnes-Mares and Mazis-Chambertin. The wine under the d`Auvenay label is vinified separately from that of Leroy.

During the 1990`s, the wines of Domaine Leroy became some of the most sought after not only in Burgundy but in the world. With Robert Parker enamoured with her plethora of climats, many of which are produced in miniscule quantities (we are talking literally one or two barrels here) it was inevitable that prices spiralled into the stratosphere. The tiny quantities were not only a result of the small acreage, but of Lalou's draconian practices of minimizing yields to unprecedent low quantities - often less the 20hl/hc, through rigorous pruning and sorting in the vineyard and the fact that many plots of vines are between 50 and 80 years old.

~ Biodynamism ~

It was her conversion to biodynamic viticulture that grabbed many headlines. Following an epiphany at Nicolas Joly's "Coulée de Serrant" vineyard in the Loire, Lalou returned and implemented the tenets of biodynamie to the letter and becoming perhaps its most conspicuous advocate. The conversion to biodynamie was carried out in one fell sweep, unlike Domaine Leflaive which converted gradually over the year.

"The vines go deeper and can absorb more minerals from the soil."

Eschewing all chemical fertilizers and pesticides, she observed the cycles of the lunar calender and the cosmic rhythms of the universe to guide her vineyard practices. As much as the scientists might ridicule the philosophy, her wines spoke for themselves.

Leroy practices massale selection, with no de-stemming and a prolonged period of fermentation up to comparitively high temperatures (32° to 33°) in temperature-controlled stainless-steel vats. The wines are matured entirely in new oak and are bottled without filtration or fining.

Blanc