Lucien Le Moine Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2016 750ml

Maison Lucien Le Moine

Founded in 1999, this small very high-end négociant house in the Côte d’Or has made a lot of noise in the world of elite Burgundy. Husband-and-wife team Mounir and Rotem Saouma are committed to releasing no more than 100 barrels — or 2,500 cases — of wine each vintage, and they make only premier or grand cru Burgudny. For some time, Maison Lucien Le Moine grew no grapes, and it pressed no wine, but in 2006, the estate purchased 20 acres in Châteauneuf and Côtes du Rhône-Villages. Lucien Le Moine makes Burgundy in an idiosyncratic fashion — by raising barrels of grand and premier cru wines according to exacting standards of élévage that include lengthy time on augmented lees for whites or year-long undisturbed aging in amphorae for reds. Working closely with growers, Lucien Le Moine produces one to three barrels from each cru, and the crus shift with each vintage. Together, Mounir and Rotem do everything by hand, aging wines on their lees, never racking them, never using fining, filtration, additions or blending. Through this painstaking work, Lucien Le Moine has become, as Lucien has called it, “a library of Burgundy’s finest terroirs.”