Lucien Le Moine 1er Cru Beaune Les Cents Vignes 2021

Mounir and Rotem Saouma established Lucien Le Moine nearly 20 years ago, making some of the most sought-after wines from the region. They have created a small cellar dedicated to the philosophy of making wines of purity and typicity. The approach is extreme – two people, together doing everything by hand, working with a dazzling array of Burgundy’s great terroirs. They devote themselves to select production of Crus from these select growers. They only produce Grands and Premiers Crus (with the exception of the Bourgogne range : diverse selection of Village wines), trying each year to have the most beautiful Crus in each village. They revise their selection of Crus every year, depending on the quality of a particular vineyard in a given vintage, but do not produce any more than 100 barrels (2,500 cases). The couple produces one to three barrels from each Cru. All wines are aged entirely on their lees. Gentle batonnage is done a few times a month, less or more depending on the vintage, and the wine is never racked during this process. The cellar is naturally humid and very cool, which pushes malolactic fermentations late into summer. The natural CO2 produced during these long fermentations allows Mounir to use little SO2 (it should be noted it is best to decant all Lucien Le Moine wines as they can have some residual CO2). Once malolactic fermentation is complete, he and Rotem follow each barrel, tasting several times a month. Bottling is done by hand via gravity feed when the wine is ready, always after a full moon (when atmospheric pressure is favourable). No fining, filtration, or addition of sulphur takes place at bottling. These are truly epic wines!