More about Michel Lafarge

If you ask Burgundy lovers to name the definitive Volnay grower, Lafarge is very often the first answer: an unshowy family domaine whose wines are pure, delicate and astonishingly long-lived, and a pioneer of biodynamic farming on the Côte d'Or.

The Lafarges trace their roots in Volnay to the early 19th century. Michel Lafarge's father bought the Clos du Château des Ducs, a premier cru monopole, in 1900, and the family began bottling its own wine in 1934. Michel ran the estate for some sixty years, joined by his son Frédéric from 1978, and together they converted the vineyards to biodynamics in 1996. Since Michel's death in 2020, Frédéric and his wife Chantal have run the domaine with their daughter Clothilde.

The holdings come to roughly ten to twelve hectares in around thirty parcels, mostly in Volnay, with premier crus including Clos des Chênes, Caillerets and Mitans, plus Beaune, Pommard and Meursault. Reds are fully destemmed, fermented with native yeasts and aged in mostly old barrels. Don't overlook the humbler bottlings, the Bourgogne Rouge, Passetoutgrains and Aligoté, which get the same care. Frédéric and Chantal also make Beaujolais under the Lafarge-Vial label.