2018 Santenay Cuvée S

After five weeks and over 100 domaine visits, the final doorbell to be rung was down in Santenay on a freezing, foggy Thursday as France shut down for mass strikes. I could not name a better grower to finish with than David Moreau: an untrendy appelation with so much potential, a young winemaker, a small portfolio focusing on fine terroirs, skillful winemaking and delicious wines that...wait for it...are affordable to many, not the few. "It was my first vintage with sorting table in the vineyard to reduce damaging the fruit," Moreau told me. "The harvest began on 1 September with the whites and the reds on 5 September. We finished around 13 September with the Bourgogne Pinot Noir. I am now doing a shorter post-fermentation maceration because of the increase in use of whole bunch as we want the yeasts to be still active and finish the sugar after pressing since we only do a wild ferment. So now the vatting period is 17 to 21 days instead of 21 to 24 days. Most of the wines are between 13% and 13.5% alcohol, a couple just under 14.0%." Moreau’s wines come highly recommended. I was smitten by the purity of fruit, fineness of tannins and their charm. Whilst they might not necessarily be wines of enormous longevity, I am not sure how much that matters when they have so much to offer in their youth (though that said, if I had a case I’d keep six bottles back to see how their age.) If you have read this producer introduction up to this final sentence, then the next thing you should do is pick up the telephone or click a mouse and buy these wines.