2011 Saint-Bris, Domaine Alice & Olivier de Moor

Dme Alice et Olivier De Moor

Alice and Olivier de Moor are qualified oenologists relatively new to the world of wine, having planted their first vines on their 6-hectare estate in 1988.

They prune the vines hard to produce yields some 20% less than the permitted maximum and hand-harvest the entire crop. The wines are fermented in 10 year-old casks, using wild yeast, followed by a further 10 months elevage on the fine lees. They are bottled in the 15th month without cold stabilisation of filtration, but undergo a slight fining.

The Chablis Bel-Air et Clardys is a blend of 2 lieux-dits planted with 12 year-old vines, with 25 centimetres of humus and limestone sub-soil. The Moors' top Chablis cuvée, La Rosette, is from a lieu-dit alongside 1er Les Beauregards, and enjoys classic Kimmeridgean limestone soil and very low yields.

Sauvignon Blanc

An important white grape in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley that has now found fame in New Zealand and now Chile. It thrives on the gravelly soils of Bordeaux and is blended with Sémillon to produce fresh, dry, crisp  Bordeaux Blancs, as well as more prestigious Cru Classé White Graves.

It is also blended with Sémillon, though in lower proportions, to produce the great sweet wines of Sauternes. It performs well in the Loire Valley and particularly on the well-drained chalky soils found in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, where it produces bone dry, highly aromatic, racy wines, with grassy and sometimes smoky, gunflint-like nuances.

In New Zealand, Cloudy Bay in the 1980s began producing stunning Sauvignon Blanc wines with extraordinarily intense nettly, gooseberry, and asparagus fruit, that set Marlborough firmly on the world wine map. Today many producers are rivalling Cloudy Bay in terms of quality and Sauvignon Blanc is now New Zealand`s trademark grape.

It is now grown very successfully in Chile producing wines that are almost halfway between the Loire and New Zealand in terms of fruit character. After several false starts, many South African producers are now producing very good quality, rounded fruit-driven Sauvignon Blancs.