Visitors to Domaine Leroy are greeted with a version of a quote attributed to Salvador Dali: ‘Those who know how to taste no longer drink wine but taste secrets.’
Many would doubtless be delighted to learn the secrets of the proprietor, Madame Bize-Leroy, one of the wine world’s most successful entrepreneurs. Leroy has long been a name with which to conjure.
Maison Leroy was created in 1868 by François Leroy and developed by his son Joseph and grandson Henri, who took charge in 1919.
The present pinnacle of the house’s renown, however, is due to both Henri and his daughter Marcelle, known to the world as ‘Lalou’.
Few winemakers have had as lasting an impact on Burgundy and the larger world of winemaking as she has.
Hers were the first notable estates in Burgundy to adopt biodynamic viticulture, and she has produced wines of hitherto inconceivable concentration and power.
Her leadership on biodynamic grape-growing has influenced generations of growers, with many implementing elements of this philosophy, even as the number of certified-biodynamic domaines remains fairly modest.
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Lalou also inspired many with her commitment to producing concentrated wines through low yields and rigorous sorting, although her success here was often admired but seldom imitated, since few domaines could command the prices she did, which made this approach economically viable.
First steps
Lalou Bize-Leroy and Aubert de Villaine in the wine cellar of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, 1988
(Image credit: James Andanson/Sygma via Getty Images)
Born in Paris in 1932 to Henri Leroy and his wife Simone Brun, Lalou always longed to work beside her father.
Her dream didn’t take long to materialise – he gave her control of the négociant business in 1955 at the age of 23.
The family had long owned vineyards, and had developed other businesses as well, buying and selling both wines and spirits.
Henri’s great passion, however, was the wines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC).
He had been a devoted customer and friend to proprietor Edmond Gaudin de Villaine throughout the difficult years of the Great Depression (1929-1939).
When de Villaine’s business partner Jacques Chambon decided to sell his half of the domaine in 1942, Henri Leroy leapt at the chance to purchase it, and in the years that followed, he lavished his attention on it.
As his daughter notes: ‘Henri Leroy made this domaine one of the jewels of Burgundy.’
Perhaps inevitably, his négociant business received less of his attention, and in 1955 his young daughter began to buy the wines for Maison Leroy.
She has long been famed for her acuity as a taster and, judging by the results, she did a remarkable job, even from the beginning.
I have had the extraordinary good fortune to taste many vintages of Maison Leroy wines from the 1960s and 1970s with collector friends, providing indelible wine experiences during the years I was living in Asia and later.
Bottles of 1962 La Romanée, 1966 Grands Echezeaux, and 1971 Corton from Maison Leroy were just a few of the spectacular wines from that era that I still remember vividly.
Frédéric Roemer, the maison’s sales director and Mme Bize-Leroy’s right-hand man, explained at the time that she looked for a classic style, remarking that ‘the 1955 is the reference standard of where the house wants to be with the Chambertin, while 1949 is the reference for Musigny’.
Lalou Bize-Leroy at a glance
Born: Marcelle Leroy, 1932 (Paris)
Studied: Trained with her father at Maison Leroy
Career: Director, Maison Leroy; co-director 1974-1992, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti; founder, Domaine Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay Family Sister of Pauline Roche (1929-2009), wife of Marcel Bize (1924-2004), mother of Perrine Fenal (b.1963), the current co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Interests: An avid rock and mountain climber in her youth
Grand holdings
The entrance to the grand cru vineyard Chevalier-Montrachet
(Image credit: Domaine d’Auvenay)
In 1974, Mme Bize-Leroy was named co-director of DRC upon her father’s retirement, working alongside Aubert de Villaine.
Then in 1988, she purchased Domaine Charles Noëllat in Vosne-Romanée and Domaine Philippe Rémy in Gevrey-Chambertin with the backing of Japanese partners, combining the vineyards to form the nucleus of Domaine Leroy.
At the same time, she purchased the interest of her sister Pauline Roch in the vines that they had inherited jointly from their parents and incorporated them into Domaine d’Auvenay, which she owns outright.
D’Auvenay is the home in the hills above St-Romain that she shared with her late husband Marcel Bize and where she still abides.
In 1992, she resigned from her role as co-director of DRC to focus on her two domaines; she was succeeded in this role by her daughter, Perrine Fenal. Domaine Leroy focuses on red wine.
Mme Bize-Leroy is quite specific about its dimensions, stating that ‘it currently comprises 22ha, 19 ares and 85 centiares’.
It includes eight village-level vineyards and eight premiers crus (see box). The pride of the domaine, however, are the nine grands crus.
At Domaine d’Auvenay, on the other hand, the focus was initially on white wine.
She began with vineyards in Auxey Duresses and Meursault, to which she added holdings in PulignyMontrachet and Meursault, including grands crus Chevalier-Montrachet, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet and Bâtard-Montrachet, with red wines from Bonnes-Mares and Mazis-Chambertin thrown in for good measure.
Domaine Leroy’s vineyard holdings
Village (white): Auxey-Duresses Les Lavières
Village (red): Pommard Les Trois Follots and Les Vignots, Nuits-Saint-Georges Au Bas de Combe, Aux Allots and Aux Lavières, Vosne-Romanée Aux Genevrières, Chambolle Les Fremières, Gevrey-Chambertin
Premier cru (red): Volnay Santenots du Milieu, Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Narbantons, Nuits-Saint-Georges Aux Vignerondes and Aux Boudots, Vosne-Romanée Aux Brûlées and Les Beaux Monts, Chambolle-Musigny Les Charmes, Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Combottes
Grand cru (white): Corton-Charlemagne
Grand cru (red): Corton Renardes, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, Richebourg, Clos de Vougeot, Musigny, Clos de la Roche, Latricières Chambertin, Chambertin
Biodynamic from the start
Although the négociant wines Mme Bize-Leroy bought for Maison Leroy were brilliant, her lasting contribution to the art of winemaking stems from the rigour and precision she brings to grape-growing and winemaking at her two domaines.
From the beginning, these domaines have been cultivated organically and biodynamically.
Her conversion to biodynamics in 1988 was among the first in Burgundy, and she led the way for a great many others.
Today, many of the region’s top domaines are certified biodynamic, including Domaine Leflaive (certified in 1997), Domaine Trapet Père et Fils (2009), Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair (2012), and DRC (2016), among others.
Mme Leroy specifies: ‘Among other treatments, the vines receive herbal teas and plant decoctions tailored to the season, weather and temperature.’
Bottling is done according to biodynamic principles, on ‘fruit days’ – when the moon is passing through the ‘fire constellations’ of Aries, Sagittarius and Leo (her preference is for the latter two).
When necessary, vines are replanted one by one using massal selection (taking cuttings from a diverse group of the healthiest, highest-quality old vines) rather than replanting an entire block – a technique called repiquage in French, preserving the older vines and increasing the vineyard’s average age.
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Meticulous methods
Domaine d’Auvenay’s Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet
(Image credit: David Silverman/Getty Images)
The domaine also led the way in introducing a technique known as tressage to Burgundy.
Vines grown in this way aren’t hedged in the more common method; instead, the vine tips are folded back over themselves (tressage translates as ‘braiding’ or ‘plaiting’).
Mme Bize-Leroy believes this reduces the trauma to the vine from the traditional hedging, explaining that the vine tip or apex is ‘the force that pulls the vine from the ground’.
Once the shoots are set, in an effort to encourage photosynthesis the canopy isn’t trimmed. In her words: ‘Le soleil grille, les feuilles nourrissent.’ (‘The sun scorches, the leaves nourish.’)
Some winemakers resist using the technique, arguing that the larger canopies it provides can hold humidity and increase disease pressure, particularly in a humid year.
In all likelihood, however, disease pressure is diminished in the generally hot, dry climate of global warming, and tressage may be the way of the future.
If some decry this labour-intensive technique because it can triple the staff required to work a vineyard, Bize-Leroy values it for producing tiny, concentrated berries.
Some winemakers also suggest that sugar levels are naturally lower when tressage is used, which can be beneficial in a hot, dry year.
She goes on to describe another pillar of her philosophy: ‘Yields are controlled through strict pruning,’ noting that the canes are pruned to three or four buds.
Even in an optimal year, this will yield only 15-16hl/ha, dipping to 10hl/ha or less under problematic conditions.
Yields this low are possible only for exorbitantly expensive wines, and Domaine Leroy has some of the region’s lowest yields.
Leroy fans find that such yields give wines of intense concentration, although some top domaines prefer the equilibrium of wines made from higher yields.
After sorting at the end of the Pinot Noir harvest, the central stem (rachis) is removed with scissors, but the bunches are either left whole, re-shaped with scissors, or snipped with scissors and sorted berry by berry.
Above all, the grapes are left whole to preserve the yeast and other microflora on their skins. They’re gently trodden by foot as needed to release the juice.
Chardonnay clusters are also kept whole until they are pressed in a pneumatic press.
After a gentle fermentation in wood, the wines are racked by gravity into lightly toasted oak barrels from François Frères (made from wood that has been air-dried for three years) for ageing.
Domaine d’Auvenay’s vineyard holdings
Auxey Duresses: La Macabrée, Les Boutonniers, Les Clous
Chambolle-Musigny: Bonnes-Mares (grand cru)
Gevrey-Chambertin: Mazis-Chambertin (grand cru)
Meursault: Chaume des Perrières, Gouttes d’Or (1er cru), Les Narvaux, Pré de Manche
Puligny-Montrachet: Bâtard-Montrachet (grand cru), Chevalier-Montrachet (grand cru), Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet (grand cru), En La Richarde, Les Enseignières, Les Folatières (1er cru)
No comparison
Mme Bize-Leroy with her dogs at Domaine Leroy
(Image credit: Tim Atkin/Cephas)
In the vineyard and in the winery, Mme Bize-Leroy is fiercely true to her own principles.
Although she has many admirers, none have reached the same heights of renown or succeeded in fully implementing the full range of her techniques.
Many have followed her down the path of biodynamics. Fewer implement the laborious tressage technique, or are willing to sacrifice yields to the extent that she has or put in place the rigorous sorting and grape-reception methods that she uses.
Her methods are sometimes compared to those of Jean-Yves Bizot, but Bizot is organic (not biodynamic) and uses less sulphur than Domaine Leroy.
Mme Bize-Leroy prefers stable wines – when asked about ‘natural wine’, Gilles Desprez, her sales manager at Domaine Leroy, commented: ‘She has no interest in natural wine.’
Others have remarked on the influence that Mme Bize-Leroy has had on Charles Lachaux, but their paths have diverged as well.
Lachaux (like Bizot) employs tressage in the vineyard and keeps yields at a draconianly low level, but he eschews extraction and, since 2022, has moved away from ageing in barrel, now ageing his wines entirely in ceramic vessels.
Another vigneron who practices tressage is Olivier Lamy, but here the comparison is less apt, since he’s known for high-density planting in contrast to Leroy’s repiquage at standard density.
Similarities but also striking differences are found with other biodynamic powerhouse domaines such as Domaine Leflaive and even DRC, where the Leroy family still owns a 50% stake.
‘Mme Bize-Leroy is fiercely true to her own principles’
Perched at the pinnacle
One common point among the aforementioned domaines is the stratospheric prices of their top cuvées, which put these wines out of the reach of everyday wine lovers.
This unfortunate state of affairs is perhaps inevitable, given the attention to detail, extraordinarily low yields, high-touch vineyard and winery techniques, and a luxurious maturation regimen lavished upon all the wines at Domaine Leroy, from the Aligoté to the Musigny.
This is not a domaine that struggles to sell its wine, even when the economy slows.
It’s a testament to the rare ability of Lalou Bize-Leroy that she has maintained her perch at the pinnacle of Burgundian wine through good times and less good times, and, in doing so, has left us a vinous legacy that will surely stand for decades to come.
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