Wine Cabinet ChroniclesMaison Leroy: The Queen of Burgundy and the Difference Between Red Head and White Head

Ms. Lalou-Bize Leroy,
is a legend in the history of French Burgundy wine!
At 23, she took over Maison Leroy, founded by her ancestors, from her father;
At 41, she became the co-owner of the Romanée-Conti winery;
At 56, she founded Domaine Leroy and Domaine d'Auvenay.
To this day, under the management of the 91-year-old Ms. Lalou-Bize Leroy, Leroy has consistently been regarded as a top Burgundy winery.
What legendary stories does this "Queen of Burgundy" hold?

01.LEROY History
In 1868, François Leroy established Maison Leroy in Auxey-Duresses, a small village next to Meursault. Since then, Maison Leroy has been a traditional family business. By the end of the 19th century, François's son, Joseph Leroy, and his wife joined forces to gradually expand their small wine business.
In 1919, their son, Henri Leroy, entered the family business. While managing the family enterprise, he also helped Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, also in Burgundy, overcome a financial crisis, earning him the title "Flower of Burgundy" from international experts. In 1942, Henri Leroy purchased half of the shares in Domaine de La Romanée-Conti, and since then, the winery has been jointly owned by the Duvault-Blochet and Leroy families.

In 1955, Henri's daughter, Lalou, became the owner of Maison Leroy. In the male-dominated Burgundy wine industry, Lalou is one of the few. The Romanée-Conti winery, which she used to manage, and the current Maison Leroy both hold an unparalleled esteemed position in Burgundy, with their wine prices being among the highest. For decades, she has been Burgundy's most controversial figure, and even now, in her 70s, she is admired and disliked by an astonishingly equal number of people.
02. Major Changes in the Winery Business
Ms. Lalou is naturally proud, ambitious, and highly capable. In 1988, Lalou and Aubert de Villaine, representing the de Villaine family who owned shares in DRC, had disagreements over management philosophy. She began to plan for the future, preparing to expand into overseas markets and simultaneously strengthen her own business. At that time, she sold one-third of LEROY's shares to Takashimaya, a Japanese department store, raising a substantial amount of capital.
In 1988, with this money (approximately 400 million RMB at the time), she purchased all of Charles Noellat's assets, including vineyards and cellars, for the then astronomical price of 65 million francs. In 1989, she then bought Domaine Philippe-Rémy for 19 million francs, and on this foundation, established her own Domaine Leroy, giving birth to the true "red-capped Leroy."
However, Takashimaya received an extremely high allocation of DRC, and some Japanese wine merchants began to resell them privately. Hong Kang Tradingnti wines were sold at exorbitant prices, while wines from other vineyards were dumped at low prices, and even the most precious and rare La Romanée-Conti was resold to other countries, completely breaking the quota system of Romanée-Conti's 12 wine categories, severely impacting DRC's market sales strategy, starting to harm the long-term interests of distributors and the winery, and disrupting market order.
When this incident occurred, the French public was outraged, and even the Ministry of Agriculture came out to condemn it. As the "victim," the Conti winery naturally could not tolerate it and decided to break ties with this "madwoman." In 1989, Lalou's signature appeared on DRC's wine labels for the last time. In 1992, the DRC Conti winery held a board meeting. At this meeting, conflicts erupted, and Lalou was jointly removed from DRC's management by her own sister and Aubert, and her distribution rights for DRC were also revoked. Her nephew, Henri-Frederic Roch (the brother of the deceased former owner), replaced Lalou.

Having successively acquired several wineries, Leroy transformed from an "unknown little guy" residing in the inconspicuous Auxey and Meursault into a heavyweight producer with first-class vineyards in Chambertin, Clos de la Roche, Musigny, and Clos de Vougeot. Today, Domaine Leroy owns nearly 23 hectares of prime vineyards in Burgundy, where land is extremely valuable, and all of them are extraordinary.
In addition, Lalou and her sister jointly inherited the property at Domaine d'Auvenay in Saint-Romain. Later, she bought all the shares from her sister, becoming the sole owner. Lalou and her husband, Marcel Bize, lived there, with her immersed in the world of wine and Marcel managing the farm.
Lalou continued to acquire vineyards under the name of Domaine d'Auvenay, including 0.51 hectares of Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres purchased in 1989, 6.4 ares of Criots acquired in 1990, 16.3 hectares of Chevalier-Montrachet bought from Jean Chartron in 1992, 26 ares of Bonnes-Mares acquired in 1993, and 26 hectares of Mazis-Chambertin purchased from the Collignon family in 1994, totaling 3.67 hectares.

The winemaking at Domaine d'Auvenay is completely independent from Domaine Leroy. Therefore, it is also widely recognized as Lalou Bize-Leroy's backyard. Moreover, the wines from the backyard are even more expensive than those from Domaine Leroy. A bottle of village-level Puligny-Montrachet can even fetch over 10,000 yuan in the market.
03. Disruptive Innovation
100% Biodynamic Farming
Biodynamic farming is one of the hallmarks of Domaine Leroy. Since September 1988, all vines have been cultivated according to biodynamic principles, with owner Lalou insisting on biodynamic methods for grape growing and winemaking! She uses different herbal remedies for different vines, adheres to cosmic rhythms, and refuses to use any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides.
All grapes are hand-picked, selecting only the perfectly ripe portions. They insist on harvesting in small baskets, passing through two sorting tables to ensure only the most perfect grapes enter the fermentation process; only gravity pressing is used, without destemming or crushing, to avoid oxidation and preserve the precious natural yeasts on the skins, with 100% whole cluster fermentation, followed by aging in new barrels.
Due to its insistence on biodynamic methods, Domaine Leroy suffered heavy losses twice. Once in 1993, severe downy mildew resulted in almost no yield that year. The second time was in 2004, in addition to natural disasters, Madame Leroy also lost her beloved partner that year. Because it did not meet her expectations, she eventually reduced the production of all red wines, blended and downgraded them for sale.

Low Yields
From regional to Hong Kang Trading, all of Leroy's vineyards, without exception, maintain yields below 20hl/ha, which is an extremely low yield in Burgundy.
Years of implementing biodynamic methods have given Leroy's vineyards vigorous vitality. Combined with the winery's consistent control of low yields, the concentrated nutrients also allow the grapes to ripen early, making Domaine Leroy one of the earliest harvesting wineries in Burgundy.
Pruning
Domaine Leroy's low yields are inextricably linked to their unique short pruning method.
Pruning generally takes place from mid-January to early April, following the biodynamic calendar. Moreover, during pruning, dedicated personnel are responsible for applying a special biodynamic agent to the wounds left by pruning.

No Tipping (Rognage)

Since 2000, Madame Leroy decided that none of her vineyards would be tipped. Firstly, this subjects the grapes to less stress during growth; secondly, the absence of additional wounds also reduces the risk of grape infection. To prevent these shoot tips from growing unchecked, the winery specifically built 1.7m high trellises. This method also makes Leroy's vineyards easily recognizable in Burgundy.
100% Whole Cluster Fermentation
In Burgundy today, more and more wineries are using whole cluster fermentation, but very few can achieve 100% whole cluster fermentation every year. The reason Domaine Leroy can do this is partly due to the extremely low yields that result in excellent grape concentration, and partly due to Leroy's almost "obsessive" selection process: when passing through the sorting table, a small, thicker section of the stem at the end of each grape cluster must be cut off. For Leroy, even the minuscule rough tannins in this small stem segment would affect the quality of the wine.

Cork
Everyone knows that Leroy's corks are often in poor condition, whether for red-capped or white-capped wines, and regardless of age. The corks are generally very soft, and after opening the bottle, you can clearly identify the state of the cork itself being permeated by the wine. In most cases, there will be seepage, meaning wine seeping through the cork and staining the label. External rumors suggest this is mainly due to the soft texture of the cork itself, coupled with the bottles being filled rather full. Furthermore, after opening the cap of a Leroy wine, mold is often found, which is not unrelated to the seepage.

It is precisely these small, unique details belonging to Leroy that allow the wines to express such richness and distinctive character.
03. Product Series
For the winery's own vineyards, Lalou supervises every step from start to finish, with quality control beginning in the vineyard itself. For example, to improve grape quality, the average grape yield is often deliberately lowered to enhance the quality of the grapes. These wines are sealed with red wax and sold under the name Domaine Leroy, commonly known as "red-capped Leroy."

However, land in Burgundy is scarce and rarely sold. Therefore, to expand, the most feasible method is to purchase grapes and then make the wine themselves, thereby increasing production and income. Wines made by Leroy from purchased grapes are topped with white foil and sold under the name Maison Leroy, commonly known as "white-capped Leroy."
1.Maison Leroy is extremely strict in its selection, with all wines undergoing multiple rounds of blind tasting. For example, most of Maison Leroy's regional red and white wines are blends of village-level vineyards, selected through blind tasting from 40-50 samples. And Maison Leroy always selects good wines from good vintages, which is why the wines differ every year. For vintages like 2012 and 2013, which were considered average, Maison Leroy did not produce any regional red wines.
2. Leroy wines are released to the market when the winery believes they are ready for drinking. The 2015 vintage, being more expressive, was released before the 2014 vintage, and more of the 2015 vintage was released than the 2005 vintage.
3. For great vintages, Maison Leroy will store a portion of the wine and re-release it to the market 20-30 years later. Historical accumulation and strong financial backing have given the Leroy family a collection of Burgundy red wines (approximately 2 million bottles).
Her disruptive innovations and pursuit have allowed her to produce some of the world's most sought-after wines in just a few decades. Domaine Leroy remains worthy of its title as a top Burgundy producer, owning several top-tier vineyards in Burgundy that are either rich or prestigious. The wines it produces, with their extremely high quality, occupy the throne of the most expensive wines in many Burgundy villages, making her a legend of Burgundy.
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