Lucien Le Moine – Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru 2015 – Burgundy France

Chevalier-Montrachet sits directly above Le Montrachet on the hill, higher, cooler and on thinner stone — the most mineral and finely drawn of the five Montrachet Grands Crus. In the hands of Lucien Le Moine, the Beaune micro-négociant obsessed with élevage, it becomes a wine of extraordinary tension and length.

🍷 At a Glance

• Grape: 100% Chardonnay
• Appellation: Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, Puligny-Montrachet
• Region: Côte de Beaune, Burgundy
• Vintage: 2015
• Producer: Lucien Le Moine
• Winemakers: Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakin
• Altitude: around 265–300 m
• Soil: Thin stony rendzinas over Jurassic marl and marly limestone; at the top of the slope roughly 20% clay to 80% pebbles
• Vineyard: Barely 7.4 hectares in total, one of only two Grands Crus lying entirely within Puligny-Montrachet
• Élevage: Long ageing on full lees in old oak with little or no new wood, malolactic deliberately delayed, no racking until bottling, bottled without fining or filtration
• Serving temperature: 12–14°C
• Style: Dry white wine

👃 Tasting Notes & Experience

• Color: Pale lemon-gold
• Nose: Citrus zest, white flowers, crushed rock and wet limestone
• Palate: Concentrated and penetrating, with the lees-derived breadth Le Moine is known for
• Structure: Cutting acidity carrying real extract and density
• Finish: Long, saline and mineral

Lucien Le Moine works differently from a domaine: Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakin buy finished must from growers they trust and then do the thing almost nobody else prioritises — the raising. Wines sit on their full lees in old barrels in cold cellars, malolactic is put off as long as possible, and nothing is racked until it goes into bottle. The house is capped at roughly 100 barrels a year across all its cuvées, and some crus amount to a single barrel. The name is personal: Mounir means light in Arabic, Lucien is its French equivalent, and Le Moine — the monk — nods to the Trappist monastery in the Middle East where he first learned to make wine.

❤️ Why We Love It

• The most precise and mineral of the Montrachet Grands Crus, from a vineyard of barely 7.4 hectares
• A house that treats élevage as the whole craft — full lees, old oak, no racking, no filtration
• Genuinely tiny production, and five bottles is all we have

🍽️ Food Pairing Ideas

• Turbot or sole in butter sauce
• Lobster, langoustine and scallops
• Poached chicken with cream, or aged Comté

👤 Who This Wine Is For

✓ Collectors of top-tier white Burgundy who want the leaner, higher, stonier side of the Montrachet hill
✓ Drinkers who prize texture and length over obvious oak
✕ Not ideal if you like rich, buttery, overtly oaky Chardonnay