2020 was quite the year for wine on both sides of the Atlantic. Frost and hail in Bordeaux, Forest fires in California. Different continents, different climatic challenges but a common solution thanks to solidarity between winemakers. 

Jennifer Higgins, Director of Winemaking and Vineyards at Lambert Bridge Winery in Healdsburg, California is a longstanding friend of Bordeaux (and mine too) and a leading woman in wine of Sonoma County. We first met in 2008 when she attended a Bordeaux wine school accreditation programme during her eleven-year tenure as Winemaker at Lancaster Estate within the Chalk Hill appellation of Sonoma County. The next year, it was my turn to visit her in Healdsburg when Jen hosted an event, showcasing wines made by women from California and Bordeaux.

Jen’s been a regular visitor to Bordeaux ever since, meeting Bordeaux wine makers, learning what’s new, and asking awkward questions. She is passionate about Bordeaux grape varieties and Bordeaux blends make up the majority of the wines she’s been making at Lambert Bridge Winery since she joined them in 2010. 

Since 2016, Jen and Membership Manager, Shelby Kolpin, have brought along a lucky few from the Lambert Bridge Winery membership community to discover some of her favourite Bordeaux wines, vineyards and winemakers. It was on one of these visits, over lunch at Café Lavinal in Bages, that we met up with Lorraine Carrigan from VINIV Bordeaux.

After a Covid enforced hiatus, she was back again in May this year privatising Château le Thil as a base for the team Bordeaux adventure. This year, she had something very special to share with them. 

Compare and contrast

Unlike the Bordeaux system of La Place de Bordeaux where Bordeaux wines are sold through brokers and merchants, Lambert Bridge sells all its production directly to consumers, and not just any consumers, but members of their wine club. It’s a tight community, brought together through a common love of fine wine but also events, parties, dinners and get togethers at the winery.

This sales strategy makes a lot of Bordeaux producers envious, but in 2020, when wildfires hit California, it presented a problem. Due to smoke taint, Jen couldn’t harvest any of her red Bordeaux varieties. Even more of an issue when thirsty club members are expecting their wine further down the pipeline.

Bordeaux to the rescue 

For over ten years, VINIV Bordeaux has worked with grape growers across the Left and Right Bank, allowing professionals like Jen, but also enthusiastic amateurs, to create their own wines from some of the best terroirs across Bordeaux.

There’s plenty of plots and grapes to choose from, Bordeaux is about four times the size of Sonoma, 110 00 ha (270 000 acres) compared to Sonoma 25 000 ha (60 000 acres). Not all vineyards are made equal, which is where their local knowledge and contacts come in. 

VINIV’s winery is in the village of Bages, right next to Château Lynch Bages and they benefit from the expertise of the estate’s winemaking team. This is where Jen had fun, working with the legendary technical director, Daniel LLose, deciding together not only the blend but the oak regime, how new and how long to barrel age and much more.

Location, location, location.

Jen selected plots from six vineyards across three Bordeaux appellations – the limestone and clay soils of Saint Emilion and the clay of Pomerol on right bank and the gravel of Saint Julien on the left bank. Blending all the complexity of Bordeaux into one wine. The best of both worlds (or banks).

It’s no secret Jen loves Merlot, and the wine displays this. The final blend is 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. It reminds her of her Crane Creek Cuvée blend, at once familiar but undeniably French. The wine will be released to members in January of 2023, although the lucky few who came with her to Bordeaux this spring had the opportunity to taste it as a special sneak peek – once sworn to secrecy.

When I interviewed Jen after a visit in 2016, she mentioned she would love to spend more time in the vineyards of Bordeaux with the growers and in cellars with production people, to see the thought process behind some of the great Bordeaux wines. Sometimes wishes do come true.

What’s in a name? 

Bridge is of course Pont in French, so Le Pont Lambert is the perfect name for this French Lambert Bridge Cuvée. It also underlies reaching out, building a bridge of solidarity between two wine regions, two estates and two families. 

2020 was a great vintage to start. I say to start as I have an inkling this won’t be the last you’ll hear of Le Pont Lambert spanning the Atlantic. Although I too am sworn to secrecy, I’ll leave you with a clue – it’s all in the name.

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