Vintus

Josh Greene, editor in chief of Wine & Spirits Magazine, chose Lucien Le Moine’s 2010 Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru as his “Red Wine of the Month.” The following review went out in the magazine’s March newsletter:

Bruce Sanderson blogs from Burgundy, writing a post exclusively devoted to Lucien Le Moine which appeared yesterday afternoon on Wine Spectator’s home page. The coverage is part of Sanderson’s preview of the 2011 vintage in Burgundy. Great preliminary scores and comments all around! He notes that Mounir’s counter-culture winemaking ideology has paid off in 2011, resulting in “potentially classic Pinots and Chardonnays.” Below is an excerpt, click here for the full article (subscription only).

“Tasting the wines of Lucien Le Moine is a fascinating exercise, in part because co-proprietor sources excellent wines, but mainly because Saouma’s ideology often runs counter to the prevailing wisdom in Burgundy.

Saouma generally loves a long élevage with plenty of healthy lees to nourish the wines. To that end, nothing in the cellar had been racked or treated with sulfites; every barrel was still on lees. “On paper, [2011] looks like 2010,” Saouma said. “There’s not a lot of alcohol, not a lot of acidity, but to have 13.2 [degrees of potential alcohol] in 2011, we had to chaptalize. Both vintages started too fruity, almost boring, until 14 months after the harvest. Then both vintages started to become an adult,” he added.”

Lucien Le Moine’s Mounir Saouma talks with Gerrie Lim about, among other things, his love of Pinot Noir and why only bottles his wines on a full moon.  Saouma was born in Lebanon and learned to make wine in a Trappist monastery, and then studied viticulture and oenology in Montepellier. Although he truly learned winemaking in France, the most important thing he gained from the monks influence was, “Don’t touch”.  He says, “they like things to be made naturally and to let things grow, and to have us just observe”.  A philosophy he carries out in own cellar. To read the full article click the image below.

In its profile of the 2009 vintage for white Burgundy, the Wine Spectator publishes its list of the top wines of the vintage.  Click on the image below to download it and see in greater detail – two Lucien Le Moine whites, the Corton-Charlemagne and Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain, make the list.

The recently closed elBulli will be auctioning off its entire wine cellar (which takes the form of a 139-page wine list!). The auction will be held by Sotheby’s and will include as many as 1,600 different wines from the cellar.  Lucien Le Moine is all over the elBulli wine list, with verticals of many Mounir Saouma’s wines including Corton-Charlemagne, Chambertin-Clos de Beze, and Vosne-Romanee Les Suchots. A total of 34 Le Moine wines are on the outstanding wine list. The auction was featured in an article that can be found here, notice the two bottles of Lucien Le Moine in the article’s main photo!

This is the second Wine Spectator Insider in the last few weeks featuring 2009 Burgundies, and the second time Lucien Le Moine gets into the “Hot Wines” section!  The Insider scores Le Moine’s 2009 Mazis-Chambertin with 95 points. The other Le Moine that was featured a little while back was the 2009 Charmes-Chambertin scoring 94 points. Check out the reviews below!

What’s better than seeing the first bottles of the 2009 Burgundies from Lucien Le Moine arrive?  Seeing the first magnums! From the barrel of Pommard Billardet Michael purchased two years ago at the Hospices de Beaune, and which Mounir Saouma raised.