2020 Lucien Le Moine Vougeot Les Petits Vougeots

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.”

Les Petits Vougeots is a 10.5-acre Premier Cru vineyard in the Vougeot appellation in Burgundy’s Cote de Nuits. While most of the appellation is the Grand Cru, there are also several Premier Cru vineyards. Les Petits Vougeots is north of the grand cru vineyard and west of the village. Producers with parcels in Les Petits Vougeots are Bertagna, Alain Hudelot-Noellat and Christian Clerget.

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.