Moore Brothers Blog: producers

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

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:

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

Domaine Le Roc des Anges

Meet the Winegrowers Greg Moore

Marjorie and Stéphane Gallet in Montner Marjorie Gallet was twenty-three years-old (and recently married to her young winemaker husband, Stéphane), when she came upon old vineyards near her home. Many of these sites were abandoned, and most were available for sale. Borrowing money from her friends, she founded her Domaine Le Roc Des Anges — the name being a play on the rocky schist and quartz soils of the area. With her first vintage in 2003, she established herself as a “superstar” in the Roussillon, producing wines of dense complexity in a region most known for mediocre, overcropped “cheap wine.” “Old vines, old soil. I’m the only young thing at the domaine,” Marjorie told an interviewer shortly after she created Domaine Le Roc des Anges. We are extremely privileged to have a relationship with Marjorie and her husband, who joined her at the domaine in 2008 after spending ten years making wine at Domaine du Mas Amiel in nea

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.

Domaine des Cretes

Meet the 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. I