Lucien Le Moine Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2014
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Robert
Parker
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru comes from the bottom, middle and top of the vineyard, one barrel each then blended together. The bouquet is poised and delineated with wet limestone scents infusing the red berry fruit, brisk and vivid. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp red cherry and strawberry fruit, tensile and structured with a lovely saline thread that lends this Clos Vougeot animation and tension. This is a very fine Clos Vougeot brimming with nascent energy.
Barrel Sample: 91-93
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Robert
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Lucien Le Moine is a small House of Grands Crus in the Beaune region of France. The winery is a two person operation established in1999. Mounir learned and worked in a Trappist Monastery where he discovered Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. He studied Viticulture and Oenology at the ENSAM Montpellier, then had 6 years experience in different wineries in Burgundy, other areas of France and California where he became fascinated by the "old way" of growing, vinificating and aging wines. One day he decided to push to the extreme everything he saw and experienced and created, with Rotem, a small cellar dedicated to the ideas of purity and typicity.
Rotem comes from a cheese making family. She learned Agriculture both at the Technion and the ENESAD in Dijon and oriented her studies toward wine. She won a national prize from the French Academy of Agriculture for a study on the Côte d'Or than she participated in many Harvests in Burgundy and California. She joined Mounir in 1999 and started Lucien Le Moine together.
Having studied, lived and worked in Burgundy for several years the duo got to know many good growers in the region. They decided to merge these relations and devotion to quality in a small selected production of Crus.
Lucien Le Moine produces only Grands and Premiers Crus from Côte d'Or.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
Containing the largest Grand Cru in all of the Côte d’Or, Vougeot, the village, takes its name from the small stream flowing through it, called Vouge. Over three quarters of the village retains Grand Cru status, and a single vineyard at that: Clos de Vougeot (or simply, Clos Vougeot). Its mass—over 50 ha—retains the single name chiefly for historic reasons.
But today, Clos de Vougeot contains over 80 owners and shows significant soil and slope variations within its boundaries. The top, bordering Musigny and Grands Echezeaux, is calcareous and gravelly on oolitic limestone and exhibits wonderful drainage. The middle sections are limestone, gravel and clay with less of a slope. The lower part has little slant and is mostly made of clay. Historically the diverse parcels were blended but today the abundance of owners means that everyone has his own style. Exploring and understanding them is part of the allure of Clos de Vougeot.
In general a fine Clos de Vougeot when young will be dense and dark but juicy, with a pronounced austerity, and needs a good ten years to bring it to its full potential.