Château de Vaux: organic wine on the hills above Metz

From five to 14 hectares

Norbert Molozay started out as a flying winemaker in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Burgundy and Alsace. Marie-Geneviève Molozay belongs to the fifth generation of a family of Metz wine merchants and trained as a scientist before turning to oenology. In 1999, the couple settled at Château de Vaux, convinced by the site's exposure, soils and grape varieties. They cleared hillsides left fallow for 40 years, replanted them and grew the vineyard from five to 14 hectares within ten years, according to the estate. The vines now cover 26 plots across seven communes on the south and south-east facing slopes of the Côte de Moselle. In 2021, the domaine became the first Lorraine wine listed in the Revue du Vin de France guide, as reported by France Bleu.

Biodynamic since the 2009 vintage

The conversion happened in one step. The Molozays moved the entire vineyard to organic and biodynamic farming from the 2009 vintage, applied for certification in 2010 and labelled their first certified wines with the 2013 vintage. The estate holds the Demeter label, according to the Metz tourist office. The change required new equipment and heavy adaptation from the team, made harder by rainy springs. In return, the estate reports steadier quality across irregular vintages and more aromatic power in its wines. The range includes the white blends Les Gryphées and Septentrion, aged in different ways, plus Pylae blanc from pinot gris and Pylae rouge from pinot noir, matured in barrels built from wood of the nearby Lessy forest.

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A military cellar turned winery

Until 2019, the wines were made in the 13th-century cellars of the château in Vaux. As volumes grew, the couple bought the former military wine cellars of Scy-Chazelles, a late 19th-century building erected when Lorraine was under German rule. Wine once arrived there by rail in tanks and filled 8,900 hectolitres of vats before being redistributed across the region. After renovation, the estate moved into the Villa Chazelles in spring 2021, a few steps from the house of Robert Schuman. The press sits on the ground floor and the wines mature in six underground cellars, beside an art deco tasting room. The AOC Moselle itself, recognised by the INAO in 2011, counted 6,000 hectares in the early 20th century and only two to three in 1970.

This article was written by artificial intelligence and reviewed by our editors.