Jérôme Lambert

Jérôme Lambert was born in Rablay-sur-Layon, a small village in the south of Anjou, and that's where he makes wine now. The son of a winemaker, he enjoyed picking grapes as a child, crushing and fermenting them. He later decided to work in the trade, but the desire to make wine was never far away. When he started making wine as an amateur in 2003, he gradually bought a few parcels while continuing to work for other wineries. For the anecdote, in 2003 he asked renowned winemaker Richard Leroy to help him sulfurize his wines, because initially Leroy was also using sulfur. Three weeks later, he calls Richard to tell him the wine doesn't taste good. "That's normal," Richard replies, "it's the sulfites." From then on, Jérôme produces his wines without adding sulfur. After making wine for his own use for a few years, he started selling professionally in 2008.
For a long time, Jérôme worked part-time to be financially independent while working as a winemaker. This has allowed him to move to long maturations, 2 years on average for the Chenin, and it also allows him to hold back the difficult vintages and only release wines he is happy with. Today he vinifies 4 hectares and is a farmer on the side, raising chickens, pigs and sheep and growing vegetables. He takes this activity as seriously as he does his vineyard, always with the motivation to be as independent as possible. Jérôme's wines are brilliantly fruity, absolutely no additives are used in the making of his wines, and the meaning of these words can be appreciated when you know that he even considers the wood of the barrels as an additive. His Chenin offers good ageing potential, thanks to the 1 hectare old vines on slate soils that give the wine its mineral depth.