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Moron-Garcia, Corton Grand Cru, “Cuvée Baie Par Baie”

Other, France 2018 (750mL)
Regular price$145.00
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Moron-Garcia, Corton Grand Cru, “Cuvée Baie Par Baie”

Even though we imported this 100-bottle parcel, pulled a bottle from inventory, and gluttonously savored every fluid ounce of Moron-Garcia’s powerful, blue-blooded Grand Cru, I’m starting to wonder if I dreamt it all. It seems no one else on earth has experienced today’s singular 2018, let alone laid eyes on a bottle of “Cuvée Baie Par Baie”—an online search returns nothing substantive, and the only proof of existence is from the previous 2017 vintage. But, somewhat ironically, its existence is immediately verified once you trace the wine back to the source and discover that it is among Burgundy’s most passionately cared for and meticulously crafted bottle.


For today’s devastatingly rare Corton, Messieurs Moron and Garcia, along with a small team of 30, hand-harvested their Grand Cru Pinot Noir and spent an entire day manually removing each individual berry from half of the entire crop. That’s right: “baie par baie” or “berry by berry” is a literal translation. Why devote all of this time and effort? To ensure that each selected berry is perfectly ripe, flawless, and soundly whole. The result is a dense and opulently layered powerhouse that redefines young Grand Cru Corton. Typically, these brawny Pinots must age 10+ years before finding a sweet spot—but today’s Burgundy of luxurious proportions is firing on all cylinders now. The only downside is that only three barrels were produced and a small fraction of that made it to America. So, buy now or forever hold your peace.


Moron-Garcia is the name to know in modern-day Burgundy if luxurious wine, micro-production, and fanatical attention to detail are among your requirements. According to Burgundy expert Steen Öhman, these are small-batch wines crafted in a way “that best can be described as on the border between crazy, or an extreme focus on quality and detail.” I understand what he’s getting at here—they’re employing practices of old and new, treating each barrel as if it’s a distinct child, and producing wines from specific terroirs that transcend what one thinks they know about Burgundy. 



Two thousand and sixteen was an eventful year for longtime friends Mathieu Moron and Pierre-Olivier Garcia. When the former’s father gifted him one acre of vines in Nuits-Saint-Georges, they put their heads together and decided to go for it. So, Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier, with their tiny sliver of vines, purchased a house in the center of town and immediately went to work. In a matter of months, they had transformed it into a functioning winery and were prepared for the inaugural harvest of their one acre, as well as a few other leased parcels from around the region, like today’s sliver of vines on the Grand Cru hill of Corton.



In the vineyard, the duo is determined to add biodiversity and farm naturally at all costs by bringing in various insects/animals to enrich the balance of the land, manually plowing, and using organic mixtures to treat their crop. In the winery, they’re pioneers, as evidenced by today’s “Cuvée Baie Par Baie.” It’s a fascinating breakdown: Once the crop arrives, 40% of it ferments whole cluster and 10% is gently de-stemmed. The “berry by berry” method is employed for the remaining 50%. This is where Moron-Garcia’s physically inspects and removes every perfect berry, and places each one in small buckets. After fermentation, the wine matures in French barrels for roughly one year. Our eight-case parcel was bottled and further aged in their cellar before arriving at our warehouse last month. 



This is a gargantuan, mouth-filling, deeply satisfying Grand Cru Burgundy that calls out to our hedonistic side (whether you admit it or not, we all have one!). It fills the senses with intoxicating aromas of candied violet, fresh roses, Damson plum, black cherry liqueur, blackberry, strawberry coulis, pomegranate, crushed rock, iron, black tea, and various interwoven baking spices. This is not your traditional hard-edged, tannic, brute of a Corton, but rather a luxurious and intensely rich Grand Cru that reads like a top-tier Chambolle or Vosne. You’d be extremely hard-pressed to find a Burgundy that delivers so much depth, polish, and profundity in each sip—this is a wine that demands the spotlight. It’s flashy and powerful—far from timorous—and only gains confidence as it soaks up oxygen. In short, if you enjoy this slowly (over several hours), around 60 degrees in your largest Burgundy stems, you’ll receive one of the richest Grand Cru experiences imaginable. 
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France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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