Moore Brothers Blog: Meet the Winegrowers

Domaine Jean-Pierre Sève

winegrowers Greg Moore

Jean-Pierre Sève in Pouilly-FuisséJean-Pierre Sève represents the fourth generation of his family to grow Chardonnay on this seven-hectare estate in Solutré-Pouilly. His father, Roger Sève, replanted many of the old parcels in the 1970s, and was the first to sell the wine in bottle. But Jean-Pierre is the first to draw the attention of the Michelin stars. Even so, outside of restaurants in France and Belgium (and “Le Gavroche” in London), almost every bottle of every harvest is bought by the hundreds of private customers who drive to Solutré from Brussels and Paris and Lyon to collect their annual allocation of one of the finest wines in the Mâconnais.

Ettore Germano

winegrowers Greg Moore

Sergio Germano in Serralunga Since 1856, the Germanos have farmed vineyards in Cerretta, one of Serralunga d’Alba’s most prestigious Crus. Francesco Germano, Sergio’s great grandfather, and his grandfather, Alberto, sold the grapes to friends and neighbors. His father, Ettore, for whom the estate is named, was the first to sell wine in bottles. But Sergio was the first to bottle the entire production of the estate, beginning in 1993. He is the perfect example of a modern, scientifically trained winegrower who is grounded in the traditions of his region. His goal, he says, is to express in his wines the character of each vineyard, of each grape variety, and of each vintage, as well as the “connection between Sergio Germano and Serralunga d’Alba.”

Domaine du Carrou

winegrowers Greg Moore

Dominique Roger in Sancerre If you visit Dominique Roger at his Domaine du Carrou in Bué, don’t expect to spend a leisurely time indoors tasting the latest vintage and hearing all about the new Vaslin pneumatic press or the Tronçais barrels from a famous cooper in Burgundy. Dominique Roger isn’t interested in impressing you with his tools. But if you can keep up with him on a brisk climb through his immaculate, steep vineyards, you’ll learn a lot more about wine, and maybe find that you suddenly care a lot more about who grows it and where it comes from than you ever did before.

Weingut Freiherr Von Heddesdorff

winegrowers Greg Moore

Andreas sharing a laugh with visitors in the towering Uhlen vineyard. Andreas von Canal is the grandson of the last Freiherr von Heddesdorff. His family has grown Riesling in Winningen since 1454, on steep, terraced vineyards near the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine, just upriver from Koblenz. The estate includes two hectares of the Winninger Uhlen, one of the steepest vineyards in Germany, and small parcels in the Brückstück, Röttgen, and Domgarten (the Archbishop’s Garden). His four hectares of slate vineyards, all planted with the Riesling grape, located at the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhein always give well-extracted, spicy and bright wines.

Domaine Ricard

winegrowers Greg Moore

Vincent Ricard in his tasting room We had forgotten how much young Vincent Ricard had irritated the local growers ten years earlier when he withdrew from the cooperative to bottle his own wine. Why the fuss? With Vincent’s startling, terrifically concentrated, mineral wines withheld for estate bottling in his own new winery, the local cooperative's blend became little more than simple, anemic piquette. So the jealous locals tried everything they could to shut him down. They even petitioned the I.N.A.O. to deny him the status of Appellation Controlée. Their whine? Vincent Ricard’s wines are “atypical of the region.” Right. They’re too good. Vincent Ricard now farms seventeen hectares planted mostly to Sauvignon Blanc, with parcels of Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Gamay. The farming is organic, incorporating practices taken from the discipline of biodynamics, which Vincent encountered during his stages with Didier Dagueneau in Pouilly-sur-Loire, and François Chidaine in Montlouis.

Gianluca Grasso at Moore Brothers in New Jersey

winegrowers David Moore

Gianluca Grasso in the old Lancia Flaminia Gianluca Grasso with Greg Moore talking about his wines and vineyards at a recent visit to Moore Brothers in New Jersey.

Domaine des Terres de Chatenay

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:

Ojai Vineyard

winegrowers Greg Moore

Adam Tolmach The key to Ojai is that Adam Tolmach knows every row in every consequential vineyard in Santa Barbara County, and that he purchases his grapes by the acre, rather than by the ton. In some vintages, that can cost more than twice as much. But it gives him direct control of the vineyard work, and by extension, of the quality of the grapes he buys. In the winery, Adam prefers to intervene as little as possible, allowing each vineyard to express its unique character with detail and clarity. All of which has conferred a sort of cult status on The Ojai Vineyard (when it’s not flying under the radar because of the winery’s strictly limited distribution, or because of Adam’s modest, self-effacing personality).

Domaine des Cretes

winegrowers Greg Moore

Jean-François and Sylvain Brondel in the winery Jean-François, Sylvain, and Martine Brondel represent the third and fourth generations of their family to produce fine Beaujolais at Domaine des Crêtes. There are ten hectares of Gamay Noir, grown on a mix of yellow limestone, clay, and a little blue granite; and one hectare of Chardonnay for the Beaujolais Blanc and Crémant de Bourgogne. The “Cuvée des Varennes,” which is always one of the top wines of the Beaujolais appellation, comes from a parcel of seventy year-old organically farmed vines. In 1998, Domaine des Crêtes was a founding member of “Terra Vitis,” now an association of growers throughout France who practice sustainable viticulture. The farming is natural, with traceability checks carried out by an independent organization operating under the "Terra Vitis" guidelines which were established to protect groundwater and preserve the natural condition of the soils. It is a variation of "bio-dynamie" principals, and is en

Domaine du Chateau Larroque

winegrowers Greg Moore

Pascal Bozzi in his cellar There are five hectares of vines (along with seventy-five hectares of cereals, sunflowers, and pasturage) at this ancient working farm in Sainte Christie, in the heart of the Armagnac region. Pascal Bozzi renovated the original eighteenth-century cellar ten years ago, and with the help of his enologist friend Stéphane Beuret, grows about 2000 cases of the most elegant red wine in all of the Côtes de Gascogne. Stéphane Beuret is best known for his work at the University of Bordeaux, where he won the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux Grand Prix in 1998. Today, his meticulous cellar work at Château Larroque (which includes aging the wine for twelve months in neutral barrels he buys from his clients in Bordeaux), along with Pascal’s impeccable organic farming (his Aubrac beef cattle enrich the compost), results in a unique wine that puts many more expensive Bordeaux to shame.