Gérard et Pierre Morin, 2016 Update
It seems like a long time since I first visited Pierre Morin, although it was in fact only last June, less than a year ago. I knew little of his wines at the time, which was of course exactly why I decided I should pay him a visit. What I discovered was a motivated young vigneron, relatively recently installed, his father Gérard having been content to hand over the reins. And as is the case with many of the new generation of vignerons gradually taking control in the Loire Valley, Pierre’s formation included stints in foreign lands, perhaps the most notable of which was in Burgundy (which counts as ‘foreign’ if you’re from Sancerre, surely?).
Just one generation ago leaving home and then returning with stories of working the vines on the Côte d’Or would probably have raised more eyebrows than a claim to have spent time tending the vineyards in the Emerald City, east of nowhere, on behalf of the Wizard of Oz. But for Pierre, who worked at Domaine Dujac, the experience was very real, and I sense it was a significant time in his development, one that has determined strongly how he handles his reds, which are superb. The whites are not to be ignored either, each cuvée (but especially the three single-vineyard cuvées) simply brimming with the caillottes minerality of Bué. Pierre adds weight to my belief that true Sancerre acolytes need to look beyond Chavignol to find all that this appellation really offers.
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