Few estates in Burgundy can trace a continuous family line quite like Domaine Michel Lafarge. The family has been vignerons in Volnay since the 18th century, bottling their own wine by the early 1900s and selling barrels to Parisian restaurants decades before that. Michel took over from his father in 1949, Frédéric joined in 1978, and Clothilde — Frédéric’s daughter — has been part of the team since 2018. The domaine has been farmed biodynamically since 2000, and the winemaking is resolutely traditional: destemmed fruit, very little new oak, long élevage, no fining or filtration.

L'Exception is aptly named — this is Passetoutgrain treated with the gravity of a premier cru. Les Lombois sits on the Volnay-Meursault border, a one-hectare parcel of clay-limestone planted around 1928 with co-planted pinot noir and gamay in equal parts. The two varieties ripen together and are harvested together, a rare practice in modern Burgundy. The vines were approaching ninety years old at the time of this vintage. The wine is fermented with ambient yeasts in concrete and aged fifteen to eighteen months in used barrels.

The result stands apart from the rest of the Lafarge range and from most Passetoutgrain you’ll encounter. It has the lithe elegance of pinot with the bright acidity and verve of gamay, red cherry and raspberry fruit wrapped in silky tannins. A wine of striking complexity from ancient vines, produced by one of the region’s most meticulous families.