Domaine louis Moreau

The history

Moreau had been the name of the Chablis domaine since 1814, when Jean Joseph Moreau founded the firm that later became J. Moreau et Fils. For most of the century and a half that followed, the family operated both a vineyard and a business selling wine under its own brand.

Then the company was sold. In 1974, 50% of the company's shares were transferred to Hiram Walker, the Canadian firm, and the remaining shares were sold in the mid-1980s. As a result of this transaction, the family-owned vineyards became leased land used to supply grapes to négociants. For a time, the name and the vineyards were no longer under the family's direct control.

Louis Moreau, the sixth-generation heir, returned to his hometown in 1994 after studying winemaking and viticulture in California. Together with his wife, Anne, he founded Domaine Louis Moreau that same year, using half of the family-owned vineyard, which had been leased to J. Moreau et Fils, as the foundation. Since the other half had passed to another branch of the family, several domaines bearing the name Moreau now bottle Chablis wines.

The vineyards

Domaine louis Moreau cultivates approximately 50 hectares of farmland, which is an unusually large scale by Chablis standards; the base of operations for this farm is not Chablis itself, but the Beine commune. The vineyards are mainly located around Beine and near the village of Chablis, while Petit Chablis extends across the plateau above the valley.

The Grand Cru estates account for four of the seven climats: Blanchot, Vaudésir, Valmur, and Les Clos. Located toward the bottom of the slope, Clos des Hospices lies inside Les Clos, a vineyard purchased from Hospices de Chablis in 1904. Although the estate refers to this as a family exclusive, since other relatives of the Moreau family also bottle wines produced from the same Clos vineyard, it is most appropriate to interpret this term as family rather than single domaine.

The Premier Cru vineyards are located in the side valleys branching off from the Serein, namely, Vaillons, Fourneaux, and Vaulignot, the latter of which roughly translates to valley of the small stream.

Farming practices follow the lutte raisonnée approach, and some Premier Cru and Grand Cru plots are in the process of transitioning to organic farming. Instead of purchasing clones, replanting is carried out using the massal selection method, in which cuttings are taken from the vineyard's own old vines.

The terroir

Chablis is neatly divided into two sections by the height of the hillside, and Domaine Louis Moreau's vineyards lie in both halves. The Kimmeridgian marl, a fossil-rich sedimentary rock that runs along the valley slopes, supports the Chablis, Premier Cru, and Grand Cru vineyards. Above this, on the plateau, lies the harder Portlandian limestone and sandier soil, where Petit Chablis is cultivated.

The rest is determined by the slope and orientation. Located on the left bank of the Serein, Vau Ligneau receives cool morning sunlight, which is one of the reasons the wines from this vineyard retain a crisp and firm character. Blanchot, situated on the eastern edge of the Grand Cru hillside, does not receive ample sunlight; however, thanks to its sheltered position and steep slope, ripening occurs slowly, allowing it to behave much like a warmer vineyard.

Here, the cold is a constant feature. Chablis is situated on the northern edge of Burgundy, and the acidity that provides the backbone for these wines is a direct result of that latitude.

One grape

Every bottle of Domaine louis Moreau is made exclusively from Chardonnay. No other varieties are blended in; there is no second variety.

The winemaking

Premier Cru and Grand Cru grapes are harvested by hand and fed directly into the press as whole clusters, without destemming.

All wines except Petit Chablis are fermented using natural yeasts. Malolactic fermentation, the gentle conversion of malic acid to lactic acid, is carefully controlled rather than left to its own devices, and the extent of this process varies depending on the vineyard parcel and vintage.

Nearly all wines, including most of the Grand Crus, are vinified and aged in stainless steel tanks, which emphasizes acidity and the characteristics of the vineyard without oak aging. Valmur is the exception. This wine is aged in 500-liter French oak barrels, which are larger than standard Burgundy barriques, up to 25% of them new, resulting in a gentler influence on the wine.

It undergoes a light filtration process before bottling. This is the general process; there is no further processing.

The wines

Domaine Louis Moreau's product line covers the entire range of the Chablis pyramid, from Petit Chablis and Village Chablis to Vaillons, Fourneaux, and Vau Ligneau, all the way up to the Grand Cru, covering the entire spectrum of the Chablis pyramid. Blanchot and Valmur also belong to the top tier.