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2012 Lucien Le Moine Charmes-Chambertin

Not Currently In Auction

Latest Sale Price

March 29, 2020 - $185

Estimate

RATINGS

94-97Vinous / IWC

Savory herbs, licorice, spices and dark red fruit are all very much alive in the glass. The flavors are rich, beautifully layered and voluptuous in a wine that impresses for its balance and class.

94Stephen Tanzer

...Musky aromas of raspberry, flinty minerality, rose petal and sexy oak, plus a suggestion of maple syrup. Sweet, silky and plush, offering a captivating blend of red fruits, flowers and smoky minerality. Utterly seamless Charmes with a sweetly tannic finish...

93Wine Spectator

Black cherry and blackberry fruit is supported by dense tannins. Overall, this is charming and harmonious, with baking spice and black pepper accents. Excellent finish...

92-94The Wine Advocate

...ripe redcurrant and cranberry-scented bouquet that is full and voluminous. The palate is ripe and sweet with a candied core of strawberry fruit and a long succulent finish.

91-93Burghound.com

...supple, round and almost soft though there is good size, weight and yet again, a sense of refinement to the middle weight plus flavors that exhibit a discreet minerality on the balanced and persistent finish...

PRODUCER

Lucien Le Moine

Lucien le Moine is a rarity in Burgundy. It is a garagiste producer of Grand Cru and Premier Cru Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with a cult reputation for highly individualistic wines. Its founders and owners are the husband and wife team of Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakir, who started the label only in 2000. Saouma became fascinated with Burgundy while working in a Trappist Monastery in Jerusalem, and later studied oenology in Montpellier, France. His wife Rotem comes from a cheese-making family and she studied agriculture and oenology in Dijon. The couple owns or leases no vineyards of their own but they purchase small batches of juice or very young cuvee from outstanding Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards in the Cote d’Or. The couple does all the work themselves and produce, at most, 30,000 bottles a year. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that “the richness and complexity of (their wines) are stunning.”

REGION

France, Burgundy, Côte d'Or, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin, Charmes-Chambertin

Charmes-Chambertin is a 78-acre Grand Cru vineyard in Gevrey-Chambertin that traditionally includes the acreage of nearby Mazoyeres-Chambertin. For nearly 200 years the growers of Mazoyeres have been legally allowed to sell their wines under the more famous name of Charmes-Chambertin, and virtually all of them do. Charmes-Chambertin is the largest of the Gevrey-Chambertin Grand Crus, and it generally has an excellent reputation. The slope of the vineyard is gentle and the surface soil poor. But producers including Joseph Roty, Christian Serafin, Domaine Dujac, Faiveley and Joseph Drouhin are acclaimed for their Charmes Chambertin. Principal landholders are Camus, with 14.75 acres; Perrot-Minot, 4 acres; and Armand Rousseau, 3.5 acres.

TYPE

Red Wine, Pinot Noir, Grand Cru

This red wine is relatively light and can pair with a wide variety of foods. The grape prefers cooler climates and the wine is most often associated with Burgundy, Champagne and the U.S. west coast. Regional differences make it nearly as fickle as it is flexible.