IF ONLY WALLS COULD SPEAK - Blancpain

ART DE VIVRE
raising of the grapes and vinification is done
by individual growers who sell their wines in
barrel to Lucien Le Moine. But as we shall see,
these are not factory blended and bottled high
volume wines, as produced by the big negotiant
firms, but artisanal specialties specially
selected and available in only small quantities.
Lucien Le Moine is a micro negotiant, if you
will. Second, and equally running contrary to
conventional wisdom, the geniuses behind
this enterprise far from being native French are
Lebanese and Israeli in origin.
One basic to put to the side. There is no person
named “Lucien Le Moine”. Instead this
micro negotiant firm is the inspiration of
Mounir Saouma (Lebanese by birth) and his
partner Rotem Brakin (Israeli). Mounir’s entrée
into wine making came in Israel where he
worked as the wine-maker for Christian
monks. In1995, Mounir relocated to burgundy.
LUCIEN LE MOINE IS A MICRO
NEGOTIANT. HIS WINE MAKING
PHILOSOPHY DEDICATED TO
FASHIONING DISTINGUISHED,
INTENSE, RIVETING WINES.
IN A WORD, IT IS A PHILOSOPHY
OF NON-INTERVENTION.
As the monks in Israel were of the same order
as those found in the Abbaye de Cîteaux,
located 16 kilometers east of Vougeot in the
Côte de Nuits, Mounir, on arrival, looked to
the Cîteaux monks to open doors for him in
the region. Through the help of the monks,
Mounir was introduced to a wide range of
small domains in both the Côte de Nuits and
Côte de Beaune.
The monks were also the source of his name
“Lucien Le Moine”. The link to the Abbey is
easy to spot in that the words “Le Moine”
mean “monk” in French. The first word is
somewhat less obvious. In Arabic, Mounir
means “light”. The rough translation of that
became “Lucien”. Hence, Mounir the Monk
became “Lucien Le Moine”.
Acting as a wine-making consultant, Mounir
preached his wine-making philosophy dedicated
to fashioning distinguished, intense,
The “line-up“ of an
evening’s tasting
riveting wines. In a word, it is a philosophy of
non-intervention. All too often, wine-makers
manipulate their wines seeking to avoid risk.
Sadly, however, wines manipulated to be safe
are wines lacking character. According to his
policy of non-intervention, Mounir does not
believe in fining, racking or filtration. Fining is
a process of clarification to stabilize the wine.
A substance, often egg whites, is put into the
barrel where it may bind with solid particles
suspended in the wine. The solids are then
filtered out producing a wine which is clear
and unlikely to have sediment. As many consumers
wrongly consider sediment as a flaw,
the resulting wine is unlikely to raise hackles.
It is also unlikely to have depth, character or
personality. Safe, but bland is the result. The
very particles filtered out of the wine possess
remarkable flavors and give the wine depth
and dimension.