Lucien Le Moine : Echezeaux Grand cru 2019

Tasting and Serving Recommendations for the Echezeaux Grand Cru 2019 by Lucien Le Moine

An Echezeaux Grand Cru shaped by the meticulous aging of Lucien Le Moine

The Estate

Founded in 1999 in Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy, Lucien Le Moine is a micro-negociant house entirely dedicated to Grand Cru and Premier Cru wines from the Côte d'Or. The house was created by Rotem and Mounir Saouma, who remain at its head today and personally oversee every step of the work. Production is voluntarily capped at a maximum of one hundred barrels per year, allowing the two founders to keep close control over each cuvée. Lucien Le Moine sources grapes and musts from a carefully chosen network of Burgundian growers, aiming to capture the purest possible expression of each terroir.

The Vineyard

Lucien Le Moine does not own vines in Burgundy; instead, the house relies on a network of selected growers who entrust their grapes or musts to Rotem and Mounir Saouma each year. This is also the case for the Echezeaux Grand Cru, one of the most sought-after appellations of the Côte de Nuits, for which the house works with a trusted partner grower rather than farming its own plot. The founders taste the juice shortly after pressing and decide at that early stage which lots will enter their cellar, placing them directly into their own barrels for the remainder of the aging process.

Winemaking and aging

As with all of its cuvées, the Echezeaux Grand Cru 2019 is raised at the Lucien Le Moine cellar in Beaune according to a philosophy of minimal intervention. The wine is selected at a very early stage, right after pressing, then transferred into barrels made exclusively from oak sourced in the Jupilles forest. The aging follows methods inspired by old Burgundian, monastic traditions, including extended lees aging, with the goal of letting the terroir express itself as faithfully as possible rather than imposing a particular winemaking style.

Grape Varieties

100 % pinot noir, the only grape variety permitted under the Echezeaux Grand Cru appellation rules.