Moore Brothers Blog

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:

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

Minerality - Explained

history David Moore

Xavier Vignon Minerality is a “hot topic” in wine these days, but not many people involved in the discussion are as well grounded in the “facts,” as Xavier Vignon - one of the southern Rhône's most important oenologists. As a consultant to over three hundred producers in and around Châteauneuf-du-Pape, he's had a hand in hundreds of “90+ point-wines" from the area. Xavier's work as a physical chemist, geologist, agronomist, and oenologist, has given him an expert view on what drives “minerality” in wine, and how it works. His lab runs millions of samples on wine every year, measuring mineral content down to parts per million, where, as he says, “it's where the magic is.” This is over eight minutes, but well worth it, if you'd like to understand what “minerality” is all about.

Don't Try This At Home

history David Moore

I've got to hand it to my brother, Greg. He's very brave allowing his daughter Kate to film him as he drives a tractor for the first time. Jochen Ratzenberger Sr. was plowing a new vineyard site in Bacharach, and invited Greg to take the tractor home. Fortunately all have a good sense of humor…

This is sweet...Bele Casel on Italian television

history David Moore

I had the pleasure of spending a day with this lovely family in Asolo. This video was shot for an Italian television series on “artisans” throughout that country. It is subtitled for those of us challenged by the language. This video tells the story of three generations doing the hard work necessary to make a success of their dreams at what became Bele Casel, the lone producer of Prosecco here at Moore Brothers. By the way, the “American importer” to whom they refer near the end, is none other than our own Frank Splane, who found them for us in 2000. We’re delighted and proud to be a part of this famliy’s story. -DM

Château Le Hauts d'Aglan

Meet the Winegrowers Greg Moore

Isabelle in her vineyards Here is another sensitive, intelligent young woman with school-aged children, like Marjorie Gallet of Domaine Le Roc des Anges, and Hélène Thibon at Mas de Libian. Isabelle Rey-Auriat inherited her fourteen-hectare estate from her mother. She is deeply committed to traditional Cahors, its unique terroir, and to Malbec. She is also a tireless advocate for small-farm wine growers. From 1995 until 2000 she served as President of the Vignerons Indépendants du Lot, and was a founding member and the first President of the Fédération Interdépartementale des Vignerons Indépendants de Midi-Pyrénées. In 2007 she was inducted as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite Agricole.

Sweet 'n Dry, explained by a winemaker

dry wine Will Franklin

Wil Franklin is a Moore Brothers alum, with the reputation as the finest wine producer in Humboldt County, California. He has given us permission to republish his pieces from The Courtier. Dry vs. Sweet Understanding a few essential characteristics of wine will go a long way to understanding how to make fine wine a part of our daily lives, just as it is in many cultures where wine is an essential part of every meal. One of the most perplexing characteristics of wine is the “sweet vs. dry” issue. Too many times I have heard friends say they don’t drink white wine because it’s too sweet, yet they like late harvest red Zinfandel that is sweet. Others tell me they don’t like red wine because it’s too dry, but then turn around and drink an even drier white wine. What is the root of these perplexing contradictions that keep some people from even considering half of all wines? Clearly the words dry and sweet mean different things to different people. In an attempt to make all this mor

This is sweet...

Prosecco David Moore

I had the pleasure of spending a day with this lovely family in Asolo. This video was shot for an Italian television series on "artisans" throughout that country. It is subtitled for those of us challenged by the language. This video tells the story of three generations doing the hard work necessary to make a success of their dreams at what became "Bele Casel," the lone producer of Prosecco here at Moore Brothers. By the way, the "American importer" to whom they refer near the end, is none other than our own Frank Splane, who found them for us in 2000. We're delighted and proud to be a part of this famliy's story. -DM