95 points - Jasper Morris Domaine Lamarche was run by François Lamarche together with his wife Marie-Blanche from the death of his father Henri in 1985 until his retirement in 2006. The vineyards belonged jointly to François and to his sister Genevieve and their respective daughters Nicole and Nathalie, who are now in charge. Nicole is responsible for the vineyards and wine making, and Nathalie runs the commercial aspects of the domaine. The vineyard portfolio of this important domaine was created masterfully over three generations of the Lamarche family. Most of the domaine’s holdings are in the village of Vosne-Romanée. The jewel in the crown is the monopole vineyard of La Grande Rue, a 1.65ha Grand Cru “sandwiched” between the vineyards of Romanée-Conti and La Romanée on the north, and La Tâche on the south. Interestingly, this fine vineyard was honored Grand Cru classification only in 1992. This is the second smallest Grand Cru in the Côte d’Or (the smallest is La Romanée with 0.85 ha). The domaine’s other vineyards include fine parcels of Grands-Échezeaux, Échezeaux, and a unique blend of Clos de Vougeot from three different parcels located at different parts of the Clos; an array of top notch Premiers Crus in Vosne-Romanée including Les Malconsorts, Les Suchots, Les Chaumes, La Croix Rameau; along with the recent addition of Nuits-Saint-Georges “Les Cras”. It took hard work over many years to bring the domaine back on track, and the hard work was evident since the 1999 vintage and dramatically since the 2005, two years after Nicole completed her diploma in Oenology and joined her father at the domaine. Since 2006 Nicole has been solely in charge of the domaine, and she now runs the domaine according to her own philosophy. The vineyard practices were changed to organic cultivation, the barrel suppliers were changed and less new wood used (maximum 50% for the top wines depending on the vintage), and the equipment in the winery was updated to modern standards. From the 2018 vintage the Francois Lamarche wines are labelled Nicole Lamarche.