Earlier this Fall, the new cellar at Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy welcomed its first harvest. This estate which stars in the world’s most prestigious auctions (read here) is located in Puligny-Montrachet in the heart of Côte de Beaune, the area which produces the most renowned chardonnay whites. Its charismatic manager is Anne-Claude Leflaive, one of the leaders of the biodynamic movement in Burgundy (read here), and the project’s architect is her daughter, Marine Jacques.
Before opening her architects agency AZCA, in the famed nearby town of Nuits-Saint-Georges, Jacques for four years worked at Bill Dunster’s Zedfactory, the prestigious agency behind the Bedzed (for “Beddington Zero Energy Development”) eco-friendly district in London. One of her first missions when she came back to France came from her mother, who asked her to conceive a B&B called La maison du caroubier. Next up, the management comity of domaine Leflaive commissioned her to conceive a new building to house the barrels for the winemaking of the oak-fermented wines and for their ageing process.
As Marine Jacques told BLOUIN ARTINFO, “the groundwater being only one meter below the surface, we were obliged to build without foundations, but we also wanted to prove that it is possible to have a low-energy wine cellar in Burgundy. This is called a ‘passive’ cellar, which aims to have the same hygrometry and thermal fluctuations as and underground one.”
This radical choice is the result of a deep reflexion on the relation between the building and the environmental conditions: “we have a close look at the climate of the place, then we investigate the human and technical needs, the way the building will be used. When the outside and inside parameters are well understood, we create the wall which will separate them, and we imagine the way it will be built.”
For domaine Leflaive, “we chose a Nubian vault, with an egg shape inspired by a layout invented by Ptolemy and based on the Golden Ratio. Thus, we don’t need any pillars in the room, allowing for more space to store the barrels. It’s also an unusual design that visitors won’t forget.” The structure of the vault is made of spruce wood coming from the nearby Jura forests “and it didn’t involve the use of any glue, to avoid damaging the subtle aromas of the wines store below. The structure is filled with hay from local biodynamic producers. Layers of of earth and terracotta help regulate the atmosphere, with 90% hygrometry.” This building was recently awarded the French National Prize for Wood Construction (see here).
A room at Maison du Caroubier with a view on domaine Leflaive’s vineyard. Courtesy AZCA
Marine Jacques qualifies her architectural philosophy as “eco-dynamic, which is also a way of paying homage to my mother’s agricultural choices.” Another illustration of this philosophy is the Maison du caroubier, “a bioclimatic, passive and autonomous house. It is called bioclimatic because we are working with the local climate, be it the winds, the sunshine amount, and the building’s ability to absorb heat. It is called passive, because there are almost no heating needs, and it is autonomous because it only needs to be linked to the water supply network, as it produces its own energy, electricity and hot water.”
As organic and biodynamic winemakers are numerous in Burgundy, the fame of AZCA is constantly growing in the local wine industry. Marine Jacques also designed cellars for Anne Gros in Vosne-Romanée, and the domaine Trapet in Gevrey-Chambertin, with a new construction for Pommard underway.
