Domaine Leroy ‘not for sale’

The owner of one of Burgundy’s leading estates, Domaine Leroy, has quashed rumours that the property was up for sale.

Lalou Bize Leroy; Photo credit: Colin Hampden-White

Earlier this month the rumour mill went into over-drive that Domaine Leroy and its négociant business Maison Leroy were on the verge of being sold, with luxury group LVMH apparently in the running to snap up the estate for quite astronomical sums.

It is, however, not true. In an email to Jancis Robinson MW (which was shared online), owner Lalou Bize-Leroy (pictured) made it quite clear that: “Following the rumours circling on the net, we can confirm that: neither Maison Leroy nor Domaine Leroy are for sale.”

A leading proponent of biodynamic viticulture and a former co-owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Bize-Leroy is regarded as one of Burgundy’s foremost winemakers and one of the most impressive not least because of her apparently boundless energy even now in her mid-eighties.

Given her age and no clear indication what will happen to her estate once she dies and the fact that big companies have been moving to purchase estates in the region, one can imagine how rumours of this sort get going.

For now, however, it is categorically not the case.