Domaine Faiveley builds new winery to increase capacity

Domaine Faiveley has started work on a new €5m winery designed by the architects of Napa Valley's Dominus.

Erwan Faiveley: ‘a new image for Mercurey’

Erwan Faiveley, the head of the major Burgundy producer, said the new building will be ‘one of the most beautiful wineries in Burgundy.’

It is being built by Swiss architect Jean-Frédéric Luscher, responsible for the ultra-modern Dominus in Napa, owned by Christian Moeiux, and for Glenelly in South Africa, which belongs to May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, the former owner of Chateau Pichon Lalande in Bordeaux.

The winery, built alongside the existing Faiveley property, Clos l’Évêque in Mercurey, will have capacity for 90ha of grapes, with ten 70h/l oak fermenters. It will be completed in time for the 2013 harvest, Faiveley told Decanter.com.

‘It will bring a new image to Mercurey,’ he said. ‘It will be in the Burgundian style and but will fuse the classic and the modern.’

Faiveley said part of the reason for building the winery was that he and his father François Faiveley had decided to ‘give a new image to our Mercurey holdings and build something brand new.’

The new winery will only be for Faiveley’s 70ha in the Cote Chalonnaise – which Erwan Faiveley intends to increase to 90ha.

‘We have the possibility to plant another 20ha, so we will need more capacity in the future,’ he told Decanter.com.

Domaine Faiveley is one of the biggest producers in Burgundy with 80% of its wines coming from its own vineyards.

The house owns 120ha including 10 Grands Crus in Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune and five Monopoles, which include Corton ‘Clos des Cortons Faiveley’ and Beaune 1er Cru Clos de l’Écu.

Written by Adam Lechmere