2011 Santenay, Clos des Mouches, 1er Cru, David Moreau, Burgundy
Critics reviews
Neal Martin - 29/08/2013
About this WINE
David Moreau
David Moreau has taken over part of his octogenerian grandfather’s wine domaine in Santenay in Côte de Beaune, beginning with the 2009 vintage. Prior to that David has worked with Olivier Lamy and Domaine de la Romanée Conti, as well as doing a stage in New Zealand at Neudorf.
David is beginning with 5 of the family’s 9 hectares and suffice to say that significant changes in both viticulture and vinification have been made compared to the ancien regime. The vineyards were almost all planted in the 1960s, so David has old vines to work with. They are mostly pruned by cordon royat to minimise vigour, and the land is either ploughed or left with grass depending on the circumstance of a given plot.
Santenay
The small spa town of Santenay, just over the departmental border into the Saone-et-Loire, produces full, rich, quite firm red wines which can offer good value for money. One or two vineyards have recently been planted for white wine.
- 254 hectares of village Santenay.
- 124 hectares of premier cru vineyards (10 in all). Best vineyards include Les Gravières, La Maladière, Clos de Tavannes
- Recommended Producers: Lucien Muzard
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
From the 2009 vintage, David Moreau took over part of his grandfather’s domaine in Santenay. Prior to that, he had worked with Olivier Lamy and Domaine de la Romanée Conti, as well as doing a stage in New Zealand at Neudorf. David made significant changes in both viticulture and vinification compared to the ancien régime. The vineyards were almost all planted in the 1960s so he has old vines to work with.
With its pretty, stylish nose, this is graceful, elegant and nuanced. It is a wine of finesse, compared with David’s more muscular, dense Clos Rousseau.
This is an exciting new discovery for us: David Moreau has taken over part of his grandfather’s domaine in Santenay and has produced wines there since the 2009 vintage. Prior to that, he had worked with Olivier Lamy and Domaine de la Romanée Conti, as well as doing a stage in New Zealand at Neudorf. David made significant changes in both viticulture and vinification compared to the ancien régime. The vineyards were almost all planted in the 1960s so he has old vines to work with. They are mostly pruned by cordon royat to minimise vigour, and the land is either ploughed or left with grass depending on the circumstance of a given plot.
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