Lucien Le Moine

Ahigh quality micro négocient house, Lucien Le Moine was founded and is run solely by Mounir and Rotem Saouma in 1999, concentrating solely on premier and grand cru wines, often only a single barrel of each cuvée. They make no wine as it is all bought after alcoholic fermentation and the wines are raised in carefully matched and selected new oak casks with plentiful lees, late malolactic and little SO2. Much of the skill is in finding fine growers willing to sell a cask of wine and then carrying out careful élevage, here heavily influenced by the use of lees and no racking. The size of the cellar means there will never be more than 100 barrels of wine in a vintage and in some years, where they don’t find the quality they want, they might make less than half (2003 saw only 47 barrels made). The style is for quite soft and richly fruited wines, but they also have good structure and a surprising capacity for ageing.