His Burgundy grand cru “Clos de la Roche” is a legendary wine around the world as well as Henri Jayer’s wines. Laurent Lignier, from the Burgundy wine estate Hubert Lignier, produces wines with incredible finesse and extraordinary purity. Today he takes part to our “summer series” on www.vitabella.fr where great names give every day their opinion on a familiar topic that comes to mind before every new harvest: To de-stem or not to de-stem?
What is your position at your wine estate: To de-stem or not to de-stem?
Laurent Lignier: “Our wine estate has always destemmed since my father Hubert was making the wine, ie since the late 1950s. But in recent years, we introduced a percentage of whole bunches for some cuvées. I practiced this first experiment in 2006 on the Clos de la Roche and Morey 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes, choosing the most beautiful small clusters on the sorting table. This was an amount of about 10% of whole bunches. Difficult to evaluate the contribution of the stems in the wine. I found minty notes in this vintage, but was it from the very calcareous soil or from the small quantity of stems? I do not have the answer today, despite other experiences in proportion to 10-20% in 2009, 2010 and 2012. I always avoided whole bunches during years when maturity and health conditions were not perfect.”
In your own experience, what are the positive and negative aspects of including the stems?
Laurent Lignier: “If you keep the stems? I think it can provide additional aromatic support, some acids and perhaps a little more minerality? But what I fear most in keeping stems is to extract too strong and too astringent tannins. If you de-stem? The best tannins are contained in the skin of grapes. They are silky tannins, more mature, softer. It is also easier to vinify when you have de-stemmed, especially during the punching (pigeage).”
USA, Australia, France … Throughout the world, more and more wine estates are testing the work with whole bunches (or, in any case, include a certain percentage of stems): Do you think this can be one of the next trends in the world of wine?
Laurent Lignier: “A trend or a fad? I think so. Journalists and customers, importers and wine merchants often ask me this question regarding whole bunches. They can influence us to follow a movement that tends to develop in recent years, although some wine estates which practiced 100% whole bunches now return to something more reasonable, because their wines are often too tannic, with too strong tannins. From my experience, our 100% de-stemmed cuvées often produce exceptional quality, so why should I change? Wine quality depends more on the quality of the work done in the vineyard, moderate yields and severe sorting. This is more important than to decide if you go for whole bunches or not. But, in moderate doses, the stems can bring an interesting aromatic supplement. In conclusion, there is not one single way to make a great wine, but several, and it is what is exciting! Maintain our diversity and identity is key, this will also be our strength against the standardization of the taste in the world… ”
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