Vintus

Chambertin-Clos de Bèze, Grand Cru

A vineyard sitting between Mazis-Chambertin and Chambertin, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze is on the same limestone as Montrachet - you can almost think of it as a wine from Chassagne, a white wine with red color.  It has almost an essence on the palate, it is supple, long, and without a lot of body or tannin.  A sublime wine.

• 2009 Vintage

   There is more talk and interest about 2009 in Burgundy than in any vintage since 2005.  Mounir Saouma has warned us to be careful, however.  He loves this vintage, and in fact believes it is the greatest he has seen in his two decades in Burgundy.   He believes the fruit had everything from the start, and the wines from the beginning were healthy and beautifully balanced.  The major issue was to understand and respect the wines, and avoid working them, since they already had everything they needed in superb balance.  Overly working the wines, he believes, resulted in a loss of freshness and delicacy.

    2009 is the first vintage at Lucien Le Moine that Mounir did not do any lees stirring whatsoever, and as usual he never racked the wines in their nearly two years in barrel.  He didn’t add sulfur until a few months before bottling, and yet his wines are still completely fresh; some whites he describes as even having a tint of green.  The Lucien Le Moine 2009s across the board are beautifully pure and focused, with the exquisite harmony of truly great wines.

  •  "The 2009 Chambertin-Clos de Beze explodes onto the palate with full-throttle blackberries, spices and white flowers in a complex, alluring expression of this great vineyard. Highly nuanced mineral notes add depth on the long, intense finish. This is another drop-dead gorgeous wine from Lucien Le Moine. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2034." 94-97 Points Wine Advocate

  •  "Here the nose is similar to that of the Mazis though this is a bit spicier with plenty of the same sauvage character that bleeds over to the rich, supple, detailed and intensely mineral-driven big-bodied flavors that brim with dry extract on the restrained, focused and imposingly powerful finish. This should be fantastic in time as the balance and underlying sense of tension is marvelous." 93-95 Points Burghound

  •  "Good saturated deep red. Crushed raspberry, rose petal and blood orange on the high-pitched, scented nose. Brilliantly delineated on entry, then densely packed, thick and seamless, with great purity of fruit. The rising, extremely long finish is perfumed by piquant notes of white pepper and flowers. High class!" 94-97 Points International Wine Cellar

• 2008 Vintage

  There is a big difference in how most people in Burgundy see 2008 and how Lucien Le Moine sees its 2008s.  In a typically unique perspective, Mounir Saouma believes 2008 is a great vintage in Burgundy, one of the greatest of the decade.  2008 was the third in a series of historically normal vintage conditions.  Over the last hundred years, on average the rainiest month in Burgundy has been June and the driest month has been September; rain in the summer is common, occurring more than half the time.  The light, fine skin of Pinot Noir benefits from the freshness in the summer, needs it, and it helps the fat Chardonnay on its way to maturity as well.  The idea that only the “modern” vintage – hot and dry – can be great is a big issue for Mounir.

  In June 2008, within a given week rain always alternated with hot sunny periods.  The results were small bunches of grapes that were getting mature while keeping acidity, and slowly ripening.  Ultimately, there was a naturally low yield, an excellent sign, with 20% fewer grapes than a normal year, providing sweet fruit and high levels of tannin.  Very importantly, Mounir believes that in recent times Burgundy has lost its simplicity to some extent – when you tasted the grapes in 2008, there was no issue with rot.  Most people looked at their vineyards, were terrified of the rot and pressed very lightly to get clean juice, only did short macerations with not a lot of lees, didn’t stir, and then fined or filtered to bottle clean wines. 

  Lucien Le Moine did the opposite.  They pressed hard, bringing a lot of lees into the wine.  To balance the high acidity and some of the unripe bunch areas due to the cool weather, they topped with fine lees every ten days instead of topping with wine.  They did not stir, and so the lees would take a full week to fall to the bottom of the barrel, slowly imparting complexity and richness.  For about five years, Lucien Le Moine has been the last producer in Burgundy to bottle, and they were again with the 2008 vintage.  Malolactic Fermentation was not as late as usual because of the lees that was added, and finished in April/May instead of June/July.  Lucien Le Moine has never never acidified or de-acidified, so while some people de-acidified 2008, they didn’t touch the wines, and watched them over the summer become sweeter, fatter and more balanced, more attractive.  They started bottling around May 2010, and finished beginning of October 2010, after the harvest of 2010. 

  Looking at surrounding vintages, the 2005 is ageable, full of body, massive, tannic, with high acidity.  2006 has almost late harvest flavor, very deep, beautiful maturity, and nice acidity.   2007 is transparent, the perfect example of terroir in Burgundy, but will not age perhaps as long as 2006.  The 2008s are going to be the year for people who care about Burgundy.  They will be appreciated the next two-three years, for their very fresh fruit and balanced bodies.  Then they will sleep for a few years, but not like 2005s which are so big they will need a long time to awaken.  The 2008s will come back as classic wines of Burgundy, but not in a spicy, sous-bois manner; they will be traditional, but have a little bit of flashy fruit.  A very particular combination. 

  Lastly, the particularity of the Lucien Le Moine 2008s – a lot of wines are cloudy due to the lees; make sure to stand them up before decanting. 
   

  • "Two barrels worth of Le Moine 2008 Chambertin Clos De Beze display classic black licorice, rose petal, peat, and dark berries. Beef blood and crushed stone add mysterious complexity on a seamless, satin-textured palate and this finishes with the reverberative resonance of the best 2008s yet with vintage-typical acidity sublimated and harnessed to generate positive energy without any sense of tartness. While the tannins here seem to melt in the mouth and there is almost wafting buoyancy to the long finish, there is more than enough structure and sheer extract to support 20 or more years of petal by petal revelations." 96-97 Points Wine Advocate

  • "Full red. Knockout nose combines red raspberry, white rose, minerals, game and crushed rock. Sappy, deep and utterly seamless; quite primary today yet already shows a noble, palate-caressing texture. Thanks to its outstanding tightly coiled energy, this grand cru builds slowly and rises inexorably on the explosive finish." 93-96 Points International Wine Cellar

  • "An exceptionally spicy nose of ripe red berry fruit trimmed in subtle wood notes gives way to rich, full, naturally sweet and seductively textured flavors that offer real style on the complex, powerful and gorgeously long finish where the wood resurfaces. This is a classy offering that should age extremely well. A stunner." 92-95 Points Burghound

• 2007 Vintage

  As Mounir Saouma says, “2007 saw a fresh summer – when we say fresh summer, we mean well-balanced rain and sunny days.   There were cool but not cold days, days with some rain and sun, but not exaggerated either way.  And you see in the wines there is beautiful acidity, but not as much as 2008, and nice sweetness, but not as much as 2006.” 

   

  This character of mid-way but not extreme in many areas resulted in wines that took a long time to reveal their nature.  “The wines started fruity and the tannins were firm, and slowly we started seeing a kind of melding between sweetness and acidity after the malolactic a year later; we started seeing the real character of the wines after 14 months.  

   

  This development of the vintage is the reason that 2007 was the latest bottling Lucien Le Moine has ever done, and why they were the last producer in all of Burgundy to bottle.  Typically Lucien Le Moine starts bottling in January or February; in 2007 they started in February, but the majority of bottling took place from May to September.  Mounir aged all his 2007 wines on their lees, without sulfur, and never racked.   

   

  Mounir compares 2007 and 2006 a lot; they will both be vintages that are approachable and will last, and their technical numbers are similar, but they are physically and aromatically in completely different worlds.  “2006 is more about sweetness and for some people a heavier character; 2007 is more about freshness.  We will enjoy 2007, but it doesn’t take anything from the aging. 

   

  Some general commentaries on the Crus in 2007:  for people who love freshness and silkiness, with tannins that melt away, the Vosne-Romanées, Volnays, Chambolle-Musignys, and Morey-Saint-Denis show ethereal balance and almost transparent tannins.  For those that think 2007 is a light and easy year, the Gevrey-Chambertins, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommards and Cortons will show them depth and power.  

  • "Bright, deep red. Aromas of spicy redcurrant and bitter cherry come across as very ripe for this vineyard. Lush, creamy-sweet and superconcentrated, with a dominating flavor of bitter cherry and an utterly spherical shape. Wonderfully silky, harmonious wine that saturates every square millimeter of the palate. Finishes with outstanding length and elegance. This is 13.5% natural alcohol, from vines harvested on September 1, notes Saouma, and is impossibly sexy today. But the underlying limestone (like that in Montrachet, notes Saouma) gives energy to the wine." 93-95 Points International Wine Cellar

  • "Mild reduction still allows the natural spiciness of Clos de Bèze to be expressed and it continues onto the rich, detailed and quite pure middle weight flavors that are perhaps not as big and powerful as one might expect but the focus and intensity are most impressive as the finish is both strikingly long and palate staining. I really like the depth here and it’s one of the more complex wines in the entire range." 91-94 Points Burghound, “Don’t Miss”

• 2006 Vintage

  Mounir Saouma’s approach to the 2006 vintage differed from many. His growers picked late, allowing the fine September weather to draw out the maturity of the grapes and compensate for a cool, wet August.  It was a risk, and not a typical vintage for Mounir, who usually harvests earlier than most, giving him the good acid levels he likes.  The reds express the typicity of their terroirs, and will be enjoyable to drink earlier than the 2005’s, but also possess the heft and structure to age nicely. 

  • "Ripe black cherry, cassis, and rose petal are accented by sage and black pepper in the nose as well as on the silken palate of the Le Moine 2006 Chambertin Clos De Beze. This finishes like the mesmerizing, buoyant play of a fountain of deep, juicy black fruits and liquid floral perfume. The pungency that helps give this wine its sense of invigoration comes from herb, spice, and almost tactilely chalky flavor elements without its interrupting an at once soothing yet refreshing and animating flow of rich fruit. Here's one wine of its vintage that I can easily imagine having a glorious 15 or more year lifespan." 95-96 Points Wine Advocate

  • "Medium-deep red. Wild, highly complex nose melds sappy crushed redcurrant and raspberry, game, tobacco, dried flowers and minerals. Like liquid silk in the mouth; dense, sweet and thick but laid-back. Builds inexorably toward the back, finishing with suave tannins, compelling perfume and terrific force. This intensely minerally, rocky grand cru shows some white wine notes on the aftertaste. But then there's calcaire here that's not very different from that of Montrachet, notes Saouma. A great '06 in the making." 93-96 Points  International Wine Cellar

  • "Here the nose is unusually fruity for a young Bèze with plenty of the classic spice, underbrush, Gevrey earth and the usual sauvage hint that complements perfectly the detailed, pure and firmly mineral-infused big-bodied flavors that possess a taut muscularity on the hugely complex and almost painfully intense finish. This is a deep wine and the underlying material is most impressive." 92-94 Points Burghound