Moore Brothers Blog: producers

Diebolt-Vallois

winegrowers Greg Moore

Jacques Diebolt in his tiny office When I was first invited to pour this creamy Champagne Blanc de Blanc at George Perrier’s Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia, I was admitted into a very privileged club: sommeliers at restaurants like Marc Meneau’s L’Espérance in Père-sous-Vézelay, and Gerard Vié’s Les Trois Marches in Versailles. At the time, there were only six hectares of vines, all on the southeast-facing slope below Cramant, which meant there was very little wine available. Even private customers, who drove to Cramant from Paris or Brussels after tasting the wine in a Michelin-starred restaurant, were often disappointed to find nothing for sale at Diebolt-Vallois. More became available when Diebolt acquired vineyards in Chouilly and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (“putting the family in debt for 100 years,” he chuckles). But more supply only attracted more sommeliers, including Eric Beaumard, the 1992 Meilleur Sommelier de France, and the 1994 Meilleur Sommelier d’Europe. Every year, he buys

Domaine Saint Amant

winegrowers Greg Moore

Camille Wallut in her vines Camille Wallut is an architect by training, and a second-generation vigneronne, who returned to take the reins of one of the most extraordinary estates in the southern Côtes-du-Rhône when her father retired in 1997. Her 13 hectares of vines are planted at an average altitude of 500 meters, in the shale and limestone foothills of the Dentelles de Montmirail above the village of Suzette. Some of the Grenache was planted more than eighty years ago. Included is a parcel lying on a Mistral-swept terrace at 620 meters, which is the highest vineyard in all the Côtes-du-Rhône. Because of the altitude, the temperature is much cooler at night than in the valley, so the grapes retain acidity, ripen more evenly, and form more complex aromas. A second benefit is that organic viticulture is much easier than down in the valley, because common valley vine diseases like mildew and grey rot, which often require aggressive chemical treatment, are rarely found at such

Domaine Corsin

winegrowers Greg Moore

Gilles Corsin decanting 30 year-old Saint-Véran.Gilles Corsin splits his time between the courtier business he took over from his father thirty years ago, and the cellar at Domaine Corsin, where he makes the finest wine in Saint-Véran. As a courtier, he tastes the wine of dozens of growers and cooperatives, and is responsible for the purchase of thousands of hectoliters for Georges Dubœuf, Louis Jadot, and Jean-Marie Guffens’ Maison Verget. Tasting so many wines from so many sources gives him a unique frame of reference when he tastes his own.“Gilles doesn’t like my wines,” his friend and colleague Michel Paquet once told me. “Then again, he doesn’t like his own wines. His palate is so fine-tuned that he magnifies every insignificant flaw, which makes it impossible for him to enjoy what he’s drinking.” Jean-Jacques Corsin, who has recently retired, has passed along his calm and deliberate manner to his son Jeremie Corsin – all the better for a young vineyard manager whose decisions

Château Panchille

winegrowers Greg Moore

Pascal Sirat and his son When Pascal Sirat took over at Château Panchille in 1981, he was able to save only five of the more than twenty hectares his father had farmed - and then lost - in a succession of unhappy personal and financial disasters. But by 1994, Pascal had increased the size of the domaine to twelve hectares, quit the regional cooperative where three previous generations of Sirats had always taken their grapes, and released his first vintage of estate-bottled Château Panchille. The vineyards slope down nearly to the bank of the Dordogne, a few kilometers southeast of Libourne, where the clay limestone over deep gravel is a continuation of the soils of nearby Saint Emilion and Fronsac: best suited to growing fine, expressive Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Weingut Keller

winegrowers Greg Moore

Julia and Klaus-Peter Keller at home When Klaus-Peter and his wife Julia took over at Weingut Keller in 2001, they had an enviable advantage: his parents had laid a solid foundation for the future of the estate with their work in soil analysis and clonal selection, and were already producing the best wines in Rheinhessen. But Klaus-Peter has taken Weingut Keller to even higher heights, inspiring a renaissance of viniculture in the Hügelland, where the Benedictines of the Kloster Lorch grew some of the most prestigious wines in the Rheinland, in vineyards that were forgotten after the French Revolution. But Klaus-Peter doesn’t have time for media stardom, and is quick to point out that “great wine would not be possible here, if it weren’t for these great limestone soils. It’s only that someone had to remember the old tradition and just make good wine.”

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.