Nicole Lamarche
Burgundy
Côte de Nuits
Domaine Lamarche was run by François Lamarche and his wife, Marie-Blanche, from the death of his father, Henry, in 1985 until François’s retirement in 2006. Starting with the 2018 vintage, François’s daughter, Nicole, officially changed the domaine’s name to Nicole Lamarche.
The vineyard portfolio of this important domaine was masterfully created over three generations of the Lamarche family. Most of the domaine’s holdings are in the village of Vosne-Romanée. The jewel in the crown is the monopole vineyard of La Grande Rue, a 1.65 ha plot “sandwiched” between the vineyards of Romanée-Conti and La Romanée to the north, and La Tâche to the south. Interestingly, this fine vineyard was granted Grand Cru classification only in 1992 (it was not included in the original classification of the 1930s due to tax reasons). This is the second smallest Grand Cru in the Côte d’Or (the smallest is La Romanée, at 0.85 ha). Achieving reclassification in 1992 was not easy, as for years the quality of the wines did not match those of its prestigious neighbors, mainly due to poor vineyard management and winemaking practices.
The domaine’s other vineyards include fine parcels of Grands Échezeaux, Échezeaux, and a unique mélange from three different parcels of Clos de Vougeot, located in various parts of the Clos. They also have an array of top-notch Premier Crus in Vosne-Romanée, including Les Malconsorts, Les Suchots, Les Chaumes, and La Croix Rameau (with the recent addition of Nuits-Saint-Georges “Les Cras”). It took years of hard work to bring the domaine back on track, with significant improvements evident since the 1999 vintage and dramatically so since 2005, two years after Nicole completed her diplôme in Oenology and joined her father at the domaine. Since 2006, Nicole has been solely in charge and has the freedom to run the domaine according to her own philosophy. The vineyard practices have shifted to biological cultivation, the barrel suppliers have been changed, and less new wood is used (a maximum of 50% for the top wines, depending on the vintage). Additionally, the equipment in the winery has been updated to modern standards.
Lamarche is now a top-notch domaine, with wines expressing their terroir rather than sheer power. This has been widely acknowledged; quoting Clive Coates (MW) from his recent magnificent book “My Favorite Burgundies” – “This is now a three-star domaine!”
