Jerome Lambert tends just a couple of hectares of vines near Rablay-sur-Layon, in a remote part of the Loire south of Anjou. They are farmed organically with a real focus on biodiversity.
Over the last few years we have been drinking his wines whenever we had the chance. Each and every time they stood out in their purity, tension and focus. We were very happy to finally meet Jerome, stroll through his vineyards and taste together in his makeshift cellar on a particularly frosty February morning and even more so when he agreed to send a little of his minuscule production to London.
In a good year, Jerome produces three riffs on Chenin Blanc from a single plot of low-yielding vines up to 50 years old planted over schist. By hand, he makes three separate harvests of this site, offering three fascinating expressions of the terroir. They are taut, tense expressions of Chenin that possess a wonderful ability to age.
He also farms a little Grolleau and Cabernet Franc. The fruit here is planted over sandy soils and the wines reflect these. They are juicy, joyful and lively. In short, everything we look for in the vibrant reds of the Loire.
These are essential wines, amongst the most distinctive we have tried and we could not be happier to be working with Jerome.
We have just received the following…
Jerome Lambert, Coule de Source 2014
From Jerome’s first harvest of Chenin, this reflects the cooler vintage and is the most linear and direct of the three. Like all his whites, this spends 18 months on lees in fibreglass vats and is bottled unfiltered with no so2. A great introduction to Jerome’s style.
Jerome Lambert, Un Brin Gourmand 2014
Harvested a little over a week after Coule de Source, this is little more complex and delicate and takes longer to reveal it’s fruits. Compact and mineral, we can’t wait to watch it unfurl over the coming months and years.
Jerome Lambert, Melodie en Sous Sol 2014
From his final harvest of Chenin, a few weeks after he began picking Coule de Source, here we find a wine more flesh and depth cut with that real tension that appears so inherent in Jerome’s wines.
Jerome Lambert, Le Zu De Fruit 2015
Grolleau from a particularly sandy plot and sums up everything we love about the grape. Dark, juicy and little wild, it might just be the perfect wine for these dark, frosty days.
Jerome Lambert, Le Fil Rouge 2015
A roughly 80:20 blend of Grolleau and Cabernet Franc, the latter grape giving a fistful of pepper and a wine a little softer than Le Zu De Fruit. Like that wine it spends 9 months in vat and is bottled with no additions. Pure, nourishing and delicious.