Domaine Pierre Morey

Domaine Pierre Morey is, unsurprisingly, the own domaine of acclaimed winemaker for Domaine Leflaive, Pierre Morey. While he is more famous for this latter role, Pierre owns 11 hectares of his own vines in his domaine, which was founded in 1971, two-thirds of which are white. He has several holdings in Meursault, Pommard and Puligny-Montrachet, as well as a few Grand Cru plots.
 
The Meursault branch of the Morey family, originally from Chassagne, dates back to 1793 when Alexis Morey, visiting Meursault at dead of night with a clandestine priest (this was during the ‘terror’ years of the Revolution) fell in love with a Mademoiselle Millot and married her. A multitude of inheritances (Alexis had 31 grandchildren) and difficult economic circumstances at various times meant that Pierre Morey’s father Auguste had only a few simple vineyards of his own, though he supplemented his supply with sharecropping contracts, most notably with the Domaine des Comtes Lafon. Pierre took these over in the early 1970s but in 1984 the Lafon family announced their intention to take back their vineyards as the agreements expired over the next few years, since Dominique Lafon was planning to work full time at the domaine.
 
Fortunately Pierre was shortly afterwards hired as general manager of Domaine Leflaive (from 1988 until retirement in summer 2008), while he also set up his negociant business, Morey Blanc, to replace the loss of the Lafon vineyards. He has also been able to purchase a few plots of vines himself. He has now been joined in both domaine and the negociant business by his daughter Anne.
 
The vineyards have been farmed organically since 1993 and biodynamically since 1998. The white grapes are crushed before pressing, with very little clarification of the juice, while Pierre likes regular lees stirring until Christmas – rarely thereafter except in years with higher acidity and late malolactic fermentation such as 1993 and 2007. Typically the wines are raised in one third each new wood, one year old and two year old, before racking into older barrels before the next vintage, and bottling the following spring.

Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director and author of the award-winning Inside Burgundy comprehensive handbook.