Lucien Le Moine
Lucien Le Moine Volnay 1er Cru “Clos des Chênes” 2016
Volnay 1er Cru “Clos des Chênes”
Clos des Chênes is a Premier cru site located at the southern end of Volnay. It is just up the hill from neighboring Les Caillerets, but is opposite in style: Clos des Chênes is typically a fuller wine than les Caillerets, with more body, tannins, depth and spice.
Color
Red
Grape Varieties
Pinot Noir
Appellation
Volnay 1er Cru “Clos des Chênes”
Reviews
Vinous - November 1, 2018 “Dark red-ruby. More serious on the nose than the Pitures Dessus, with its currant, chocolate, menthol and oak aromas complicated by a mineral quality. Sappy and chewy on the palate, with flavors of redcurrant, mocha and tobacco leaf conveying a red-clay character. The firmly structured finish shows surprising freshness and lift, not to mention excellent length.”
Burghound - November 1, 2018 “A well-layered nose combines notes of red and dark currant, spice and a pretty hint of lavender. The denser, serious and more powerful big-bodied flavors brim with both dry extract and minerality that carries over to the super-intense, youthfully austere and linear finish. This very firm effort also needs to develop more depth but if it does this could be a first-rate Clos des Chênes.”
"Muscular and structured"
Wine Advocate (92+) - March 5, 2020 “The 2016 Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes unwinds in the glass with a deep bouquet of cassis, plums, incense and smoked meats, framed by a generous application of spicy oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, muscular and structured, with a concentrated core of fruit, lively acids and fine but firm structuring tannins. While this is not austere to the point of causing concern, it certainly won't be approachable young. So, readers contemplating this Clos des Chênes should factor in a decade's patience."
Trade Materials
Other Wines by this Producer
Bourgogne Rouge
Bourgogne Rouge
This wine features Givry fermented by carbonic maceration, Hauts Côte de Nuits, some beautiful Cte de Nuits village, Fixin, Marsannay, and Pernand. Both the Bourgogne red and white spend a full 2 years in barrel, with some Premier and Grand Crus even bottled before them.
Bourgogne Blanc
Bourgogne Blanc
A blend of Rully Premier Cru, Marsannay white, Monthelie, Pernand Vergelesses, and Bourgogne from Meursault. Also, since the 2014 vintage, old vine Pouilly-Fuisse aged in new barrels.
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Petits Monts”
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Petits Monts”
Les Petits Monts is a small, 9 acre vineyard just up-slope from Richebourg. Mounir Saouma says about Les Petits Monts that it is not far from Les Suchots, and on top of Richebourg, with a poor, dry soil. It is in character the opposite of Les Suchots, which is colored and tannic - it is a subtle and very fine wine, which shows little tannin, more floral notes and more of a St-Vivant character.
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Suchots”
Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru “Les Suchots”
Les Suchots is one of Lucien Le Moine’s finest Crus every year. Mounir says that, like Échézeaux, there is an almost Syrah-like character of licorice and smoke. Les Suchots is a wine with a lot of tannin and less of a classic, delicate Burgundian profile.
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru “Les Vaucrains”
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru “Les Vaucrains”
The commune of Nuits-Saint-Georges is the southernmost commune of the Côte de Nuits, and includes, from a viticultural standpoint, the small adjoining commune of Prémeaux-Prissey. There are 431 acres of vineyards which take this appellation at the village level, of which 29 are in Prémeaux. Of the 1er Cru vineyards, numbering 36, 28 vineyards occupy 248 acres in Nuits-Saint-Georges; the remaining eight, in Prémeaux, cover 104 acres. The Les Vaucrains is a vineyard of 15 acres lying upslope at 260-280 meters in the south part of Prémeaux.
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru “Les Cailles”
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru “Les Cailles”
The Les Cailles is an 18 acre vineyard from which the last several years Lucien Le Moine has produced wines of surprising power that still retain the elegance of Les Cailles. Les Cailles, Mounir Saouma says, is deeper than other Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Crus, with more body and more tannin. It is dense, and the heat of the vineyard gives a “charred” character to the wine - it becomes clear that this character is the wine’s (and not from oak) when you come to the finish, which is purely fruit. It is clear why some consider it a Grand Cru level vineyard.