Gérard et Pierre Morin: Wines
All the fruit is picked by hand, a technique that Gérard also adhered to during his time in charge. Pierre Morin doesn’t believe that picking by machine allows the right level of selection. Other than aiming for lower yields he also handles the fruit more carefully in the cellars than the previous generation did. Gérard Morin would move the fruit up to the vats using a screw, but Pierre has consigned this to the dustbin. His team pick into stainless steel trays, and the fruit once arrives at the cellars it is dropped onto a conveyor belt. After selecting on the belt the whole bunches then go into the press, for a slow pressing over two or three hours. “This helps to avoid the extraction of unattractive aromas, and gives more finesse”, says Pierre. The norm is to ferment in tank using only indigenous yeasts, and after the élevage to bottle the wines without filtration.
The entry-level wine is the domaine cuvée, which comes from 70% caillottes and 30% terres blanches from various parcels. This is tank-fermented, and would usually be bottled before spring the following year. Then there are three site-specific cuvées; the first is from Chêne Marchand, where Pierre says the soil is more griottes than caillottes (griottes are essentially small caillottes). The fruit is picked fairly early, says Pierre, as it ripens quickly and once the acidity levels fall and the wine is “not so interesting”. This cuvée is tank-fermented, and likely to be bottled about a year after the harvest, which means the wine has usually had about eight months on the lees.
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