Domaine des Lambrays is built around a single vineyard, the Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru in Morey-Saint-Denis, on Burgundy's Côte de Nuits. Records held in the archives of the Abbaye de Citeaux mention an estate called Cloux des Lambrey on this ground as early as 1365, making it one of the older documented sites in the region. The vineyard was broken up among dozens of owners during the French Revolution and stayed fragmented for more than a century before being gradually reassembled, first by the Rodier family in the late nineteenth century and later by subsequent owners.
The estate's modern history begins in 1979, when Roland de Chambure and the Saier brothers bought the largely neglected property and set about restoring both the vineyard and the cellar, working with winemaker Thierry Brouin. Their efforts were recognized in 1981, when Clos des Lambrays was elevated to Grand Cru status, one of only a small number of Burgundy vineyards to carry that rank as a single named site rather than a shared appellation. The domaine passed through the Freund family before Bernard Arnault and Groupe LVMH acquired it in 2014, with Jacques Devauges taking over as director.
Clos des Lambrays covers roughly 8.7 hectares, of which Domaine des Lambrays owns and farms close to 8.66, with a small remaining sliver belonging to neighboring Domaine Taupenot-Merme. That concentration of ownership makes it a near-monopole, one estate responsible for almost everything produced under the name, and lets the domaine farm and pick the whole slope as a single continuous parcel rather than dividing decisions across multiple growers.
Since the change in ownership, the estate has converted its farming from conventional to organic and then biodynamic practice, moving through organic conversion in 2019 and biodynamic methods from 2020, with 2022 the first vintage certified organic under Ecocert. The vineyard sits on clay and limestone soils typical of the Côte de Nuits and is planted entirely to Pinot Noir, harvested by hand and vinified with careful sorting and a selective approach to which lots enter the final blend.
Wines from Clos des Lambrays are known for combining a light color and a perfumed, red fruited nose, raspberry, rose petal, and cherry are typical, with real structure underneath, a balance sometimes described locally as an iron fist in a velvet glove. It is Pinot Noir that favors lift, spice, and precision over sheer weight, shaped by the site's cool, limestone-driven character rather than by heavy extraction in the cellar. i.WINE currently carries the Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2016 and the Domaine des Lambrays Clos de Lambrays Grand Cru 2021.
