Product information

Domaine Bernard Moreau Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge Vielles Vignes 2019

Pinot Noir from France, Côte du Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet, Burgundy

$114

$109ea in any 3+
$104ea in any 6+
Closure: Cork

Description

The reds of Chassagne a little secret that’s slowly making its way out of the bag. I had one of Alex’s red the 1978 monopole Morgeot ‘La Cardeuse’ in September 2020. In a word stunning. Ask Alex and he’ll tell you the soil profile is very similar to Chambolle in that neck of the woods.

A ripe, fresh and relatively deeply pitched nose reveals notes of pepper and earth inflected dark berries and plum. The nicely rich and vibrant medium-bodied flavors possess a supple and round mid-palate while exhibiting good persistence on the delicious finale. This is very pinot in style and is a wine that should drink well after only a few years of cellaring.

Burghound

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Check out all of the wines by Domaine Alex Moreau

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

… I do want to draw readers’ attention to two growers in Chassagne Montrachet who are “killing it” at the moment. Firstly, there is Alex Moreau at Domaine Bernard Moreau. This is a domaine whose wines have risen to a whole new level in recent years. Moreau’s portfolio is a veritable tour around Chassagne’s Premier Crus, showcasing the nuances between climats on the flatter lower sectors and more limestone-rich parcels located on higher contour…

Vinous – Neal Martin 2020

Full disclaimer – Domaine Bernard-Moreau et Fils has a sentimental place in my wine history. Alex came to work with us at Yering Station in 1999, I headed to Chassagne later that year working with him for the harvest. The hospitality of his family and the people of Chassagne was boundless! Since then the Domain’s portfolio has expanded to include a presence in Volnay and the addition of the two Grand Cru’s Bâtard-Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet. Under Alex’s leadership, the wines have continued to push to achieve excellence. It’s with a certain amount of pride that I offer his wines to the Wine Decoded community.

Vintage 1999 at Domain Bernard Moreau

The landscape of runs from just south of Chassagne (left) across to Puligny. The Grand Cru’s are in the 2nd and 3rd photo from the right. Yes, these pic’s were taken pre-digital! Read an almost finished retrospective of the vintage in the Wine Bites Mag.

About Domain Bernard-Moreau et Fils

The winery’s roots go back to 1809 when Auguste Moreau built a cellar across from the Champs Gain vineyard and farmed his few hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot along the golden slope. The 1930s saw an expansion of the family’s vineyards under the guidance of Marcel Moreau.

Roughly 80% of the Domaine’s current vineyard holdings were acquired by Marcel. At age 14, Bernard Moreau took over the vineyards and cellar in the early 1960’s. In 1977 the reputation of this great estate was fully established under the leadership of Bernard and Françoise Moreau and the winery was named Domaine Bernard Moreau. In addition to the changes in equipment, farming and winemaking, they also purchased additional land bringing the vineyard total to 14 hectares. To help with winemaking, viticulture and sales, sons Alex and Benoît joined the Domaine after having worked in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Alex and Benoit loosely split the responsibilities of the operation with Benoit more focused on the vineyards and Alex more focused on the cellar.

As with most all great Burgundian estates, the emphasis at Domaine Moreau is on terroir. Treat the vineyards right and they’ll reward you ith superior fruit. To maintain healthy, balanced soils the winery uses organic fertilizers and no pesticides. To ensure greater flavor intensity they farm the land for lower yields through pruning, debudding, green harvesting in August, leaf thinning for Pinot Noir (on the morning sun side), and the planting of cover crops in certain vineyards to encourage competition and soak up moisture.

The 1er Cru Chardonnays are barrel fermented and aged in French oak barrels (10%-30% new). The wine spends between 12 and 18 months in wood with a little lees stirring early on for added texture. Says Bernard, “The spirit of our winemaking is to not touch the wine too often. For Chardonnay, our aim is to produce very clean and precise wines which are not too austere. We like the minerality and purity.”

The red wines are aged in French oak barrels (10%-50% new) for 12 to 20 months depending on the vineyard and vintage. Bernard states, “For our Pinot Noirs we don’t do any racking, fining or filtration. We want to make the purest expression of the Pinot Noir from our vineyards.”

Levi Dalton spoke with Alex about his start at progression at Domaine Bernard Moreau.

The 2019 Vintage at Domaine Bernard-Moreau

Notes from Burghound:

Alexandre Moreau told me that the 2019 growing season “was mostly hot and very dry though some early season frost did a lot of damage, especially here in Chassagne. The flowering did not pass especially well either, so we incurred a lot of shatter and a subsequent high incidence of shot berries. This is of course good for quality but much less propitious for quantity. Otherwise there really wasn’t much else of consequence and we began picking on the 7th of September. While the fruit was impeccably clean and very ripe, there just wasn’t much juice in the berries so yields came in around 25 hl/ha for the pinot and between 27 and 30 hl/ha for the chardonnay. Potential alcohols weren’t all that high at between 12. 8 and 13.3% with good but not great acidities. As usual, we vinified the reds quite softly as it seemed clear from the beginning that the extractions would happen almost by themselves. I really like the 2019 vintage as the wines are balanced and vibrant and much more transparent to the underlying terroir than a hot growing season would suggest.” 


Between the spring frost and a protracted flowering, Alex Moreau reported that yields at this address were appreciably diminished, ranging from a decidedly low 25 hectoliters per hectare to a moderate 40. Harvest began here on September 7, and alcohols top out at 13.4%. Fermentations were a little fast for Alex’s liking, but this is once again a superb range, meriting a place in any well-stocked Burgundy cellar. Serious and concentrated, these 2019s evoke the domaine’s 2015s, but if anything they’re even better balanced. An unusually hurried schedule, compressed by France’s second COVID-19 lockdown, precluded revisiting the bottled 2018s, an oversight that will be remedied later this year—from my own cellar, if necessary. In any case, as ever, any wine bearing the Moreau label comes warmly recommended.

William Kelley


Nature is a tough taskmaster. Alex shares a depth of insight rarely explored. Just how do the best winemakers deal with tough vintages? What goes through their brains? How far ahead do they need to think?

You’ll hear Alex talk of the unknown, of thinking 3 years ahead in the vineyard, and, of the choices needed when your vineyard produces just two barrels instead of 12. The footage is ordinary, the words authentic.

 

88 Points

A ripe, fresh and relatively deeply pitched nose reveals notes of pepper and earth inflected dark berries and plum. The nicely rich and vibrant medium-bodied flavors possess a supple and round mid-palate while exhibiting good persistence on the delicious finale. This is very pinot in style and is a wine that should drink well after only a few years of cellaring.

Allen Meadows, Burghound

Where in the world does the magic happen?

3 Rue de Chagny, 21190 Chassagne-Montrachet, France

Chassagne-Montrachet
Côte du Beaune
Burgundy
France