Lucien Le Moine | Beaune
Lucien Le Moine is a micro-négociant established in 1999 and run by husband-and-wife team Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakin. Whilst there is no winemaking involved, as the wines reach them after fermentation, it is hard to find a more perfectionist address in Burgundy as both the parcels of grapes and the barrels they buy are meticulously selected, and élevage is carried out with phenomenal attention to detail. They work closely with their barrel supplier to ensure the right barrels for the style of a given wine, using wood from the Jupilles forest which is apparently the slowest growing in France, thus giving the most fine-grained wood. One hundred per cent new wood is used. Almost every wine from Le Moine is premier or grand cru, and the few that are not, nonetheless aspire to that same level of quality. Total production is limited to a hundred barrels (2,500 cases), with each wine made typically in quantities of between one and three barrels.