Moore Brothers Blog

Xavier Vignon

winegrowers Greg Moore

Xavier in his laboratory in Avignon As the technical director and head enologist at “Avignon Oenologie Conseil,” Xavier oversees winemaking at more than 300 estates, including most of the best-known domaines in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In lieu of payment for his laboratory’s service, he sometimes accepts wine, which “Xavier Vins,” the micro-négociant company he established in 2002, assembles into some of the most expressive wines in the southern Rhône Valley.Originally a physical chemist, Xavier is particularly interested in how the spectrum of dissolved mineral salts in the groundwater of each vineyard, which varies from parcel to parcel, influences the expression of terroir in the grapes. “I’m a trained enologist,” he says. “I’ve examined wine down to the molecular level. Which, in the end, convinces me that what is most important are the vines, the depth of the roots, and the health and balance of the vineyard.”

Domaine Louis Boillot

winegrowers Greg Moore

Louis Boillot in his cellar in Chambolle-Musigny Louis Boillot’s seven-hectare estate is half of the original Domaine Lucien Boillot of Gevrey-Chambertin. In 2002, the domaine was split equally between Louis and his brother Pierre, who continues operations at Domaine Lucien Boillot. But in 2003, shortly after their father’s retirement, Louis left the winery in Gevrey, and with his wife, Ghislaine Barthod, a famous and highly respected winegrower in her own right, purchased a lovely old house with a perfect, functional cellar in Chambolle-Musigny. Today, Ghislaine Barthod and Louis Boillot make their wines side by side in the same cellar. Both have unusually old vines; Ghislaine’s vineyards all in Chambolle-Musigny, and Louis’ in eight communes stretching the entire length of the Côte, from Fixin through Gevrey-Chambertin, all the way south to Volnay, and further south to Moulin-a-Vent. Their son Clément will one day inherit a combined domaine that will be one of the greatest in al

Terre Bianche

winegrowers Greg Moore

Paolo and Filippo Rondelli 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of Terre Bianche, established in 1870 when the first Rosesse grapes were planted in the white soil above the Ligurian Riviera, just eight kilometers from the French border. But the reputation and influence of this remarkable estate today is mostly due to Filippo Rondelli, who took over the estate at the age of twenty, on the death of his father, Claudio. “My problem is that I'm a perfectionist and never happy with results…and our problem is that we're not in Piemonte, so we have to work a lot to reach our goals.”

Château Brulesecailles

winegrowers Greg Moore

Jacques Rodet No doubt Château Brûlesécaille, which was classified a Cru Bourgeois in 1868, would be better known today if the wine were sold on the Place de Bordeaux. But Jacques and Martine Rodet, who took charge of the family estate in 1974, prefer to sell their wine directly, in mutually rewarding personal relationships like the one that established Château Brûlesécaille at “Les Trois Marches” in Versailles more than thirty years ago, and the one I hope will continue long into the future. The 26-hectare estate lies on an elevated croupe of gravelly clay limestone overlooking the Dordogne in Tauriac, one of the most privileged locations in the Côtes de Bourg. Of special interest is that many of the vines are more than seventy years old, having escaped the ravages of the terrible freeze of February 1956, which destroyed nearly three fourths of the vines on the Right Bank. Stéphane Beuret, the brilliant enologist who also makes the wine at Domaine du Château Larroque, super

Château Turcaud

Meet the Winegrowers Greg Moore

Maurice Robert and Stéphane Lemay at Château Turcaud From the beginning in 1973, when Maurice Robert purchased seven hectares of run down, abandoned vines in La Sauve Majeure, this has been one of the most extraordinary estates in Bordeaux. Within ten years Château Turcaud was represented on the wine lists of the most prestigious restaurants in France, including Gerard Vié’s “Les Trois Marches” in Versailles, and Jean-Claude Vrinat’s “Taillevent” in Paris.Under the direction of Stéphane Lemay, who is both a highly skilled vineyard manager, and a sensitive, talented winemaker, Château Turcaud has risen to even higher heights, and is always included on the short list of the greatest producers of white Bordeaux outside of the Graves.

Frank Splane - On Italy

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A recent layover in London gave me an opportunity to see an old friend and to visit a special shop where I planned to procure a few tasty gifts for the viticoltori I visit every year in Italy. Over the years, I’ve offered my hosts vino Americano, pancake mix (there’s no equivalent in France or Italy), Vermont maple syrup, Yankees baseball caps, and Bonny Doon T-shirts. But it had been a long time since I’d bought a wedge at Neal’s Yard Dairy in London, one of the planet’s finest cheese shops. Neal’s often pops into my mind whenever a new customer enters Moore Brothers for the first time. I’m reminded of my first visit to Neal’s… I was not then (nor am I now) a card-carrying cheese connoisseur. Indeed, au sujet de fromage, I usually defer to the expertise of Scott, Eric, or Kathryn. All I knew then was what I had heard: that Neal’s is a showcase of “farmhouse” British cheese, is scrupulous about the conservation of its goods, and is synonymous with quality. I looked around the

Brunori

winegrowers Greg Moore

Cristina and Carlo Brunori Generations of Brunoris have grown wine in the province of Ancona, in Le Marche, but none was bottled until 1956, when Mario Brunori established his winery in the rural Contrada San Nicolò. At the same time, he opened a small wine shop in the nearby town of Jesi. Today, Mario’s son Giorgio heads the family business, assisted by his daughter Cristina who manages the office, and his enologist son Carlo who is in charge of the winery. Specialties include outstanding Rosso Conero and Rosso Piceno, as well as the best Verdicchio in the province.

Domaine des Terres de Chatenay

Meet the Winegrowers Greg Moore

Marie-Odile and Jean-Claude Janin Jean-Claude Janin worked for sixteen years as technical director and winemaker at the Cave de Viré, responsible for the production of thousands of hectoliters of Viré-Clessé, Mâcon-Villages, and Bourgogne Blanc. In 2006 he quit the cooperative, and working mostly alone over the course of the following year, built a tiny, immaculate winery, where he and his wife Marie-Odile produce brilliant, mineral Chardonnays from grapes they grow on the seven-hectare estate she inherited from her father. Most of the wine is sold en vrac to négociants, but a tiny quantity from the oldest vines is estate-bottled and sold directly, mostly to private customers. Here's Terry Moore leading a small tasting of the domaine’s wines:

Robert Ampeau

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Robert Ampeau in 2003 (photo: Greg Moore) Robert Ampeau was a legendary figure, and an admired colleague of the most important producers in Burgundy, including Aubert de Villaine, Lalou Bize-Leroy, Dominique Lafon, and Hubert de Montille, whose cellars all contain Ampeau wine. Ruth Reichl, the last Editor-in Chief of Gourmet magazine, recorded the impression that Ampeau made on other producers in her 1998 memoir, Tender at the Bone, in which she recorded her visit to the Volnay producer Hubert de Montille, accompanied by the wine merchant, Kermit Lynch. Kermit had brought along a bottle of one of Ampeau’s wines (label removed) “to see what he really thinks.” “There is sunlight in the glass,” de Montille said finally, “much sunlight. It is from a very good year…what can it be?” When Kermit told him what it was, de Montille cried, “But I have this wine in my cellar!” He turned eagerly to Kermit and asked, “Did Ampeau sell

Proprietà Sperino

Meet the Winegrowers Greg Moore

Luca De Marchi at Proprietà Sperino For more than thirty years at Isole e Olena in Chianti Classico, Paolo De Marchi has produced some of the greatest wines ever to come out of Italy. But he always nurtured another dream: to bring back the wine of Proprietà Sperino, the original De Marchi family estate in Lessona, in the Alpine foothills of northern Piemonte, where the last vintage had been harvested in 1952. If you scoop up the soil in Lessona only a half-hour after a heavy rain, it runs through your fingers like sand in an hourglass. The climate is dry, and a cool breeze blows down from the Alps to the north. A hundred years ago, the wines grown here by Felice Sperino, Paolo De Marchi’s great, great uncle, were the most expensive wines in Italy. Today, after twenty years of arduous work replanting the vineyards and renovating the winery, Paolo and his son Luca have given new life to Proprietà Sperino, and are now the vanguard of the renaissance of this hist