Category: News

As a négociant, Mounir Saouma is unique, and so are both the rapidity and height of Lucien Le Moine’s rise. (« Le Moine » stems from Saouma’s stay in the 1980s at a Trappist monastery, which ultimately conferred a winemaking vocation on this would-be journalist.) In business only since 2000, he and his wife, Rotem Brakin, working…

98 Lucien Le Moine 2004 Corton Grand Cru Corton-Charlemagne This precise evocation of Corton, from a west-facing limestone Pernand siope, starts small, behind spice and toasty oak, and grows slowly. A sense of limestone is what lasts, the wine opulent but restricted by its structure. Cellar it for a decade or more. (W&S 4/07)

Maison Lucien Le Moine (Beaune) Mounir and Rotem Saouma established their two-person micro-négoce in 1999. They describe the 2006 vintage as a “vintage of great pleasure. The reds are very fruity and should drink well relatively early though the balance is such that they will be capable of aging well. As to the growing season,…

« Two thousand six was a year to pick late, even in the Cote de Beaune, in order to capture the beautiful side of a cool summer, » said Mounir Saouma, who added that his wines are made from vines picked « earlier than the others in eight out of ten years. » He went on: « There was a…

I’m back in Burgundy for a second look at the 2006 reds and whites. My first visit last June was an initial impression of the vintage as a whole. Now that the wines are at the end of their elevage, if not already bottled, I will be looking more closely at individual wines. … Later…

STEPHEN TANZER’S International Wine CellarSEP / OCT 2007 « The grapes were very ripe in 2006, and acidity levels were slightly low, » said Mounir Saouma. « Some wines reached 15% potential alcohol but in this growing season even 13% means more physiological maturity than the numbers would suggest. » Saouma’s approach to making the wines was « to delay…

JUNE 2007 # 171By David Schildknecht Mounir Saouma is a négociant of a unique sort (  »Le Moine » because his visit in the late 1980s to a Trappist monastery in Jerusalem ultimately conferred a wine-making vocation on this would-be journalist). In business for only seven years, He and his wife Rotem Brakin, working alone, purchase…

Mounir Saouma and his wife Rotem Brakin established their two-person micro-négoce in 1999. They describe the 2005 vintage as a “small harvest that gave very concentrated raw materials. Across our growers, the crop was very clean with around 13.5% potential alcohol and very ripe phenolics. The white fermentations were relatively fast and it’s really the…

Below is the complete article from BURGHOUHD.COM ISSUE 26 (2nd Quarter 2007) evaluating our wines. Mounir Saouma and his partner Rotem Brakin established their two-person micro-négoce in 1999. They describe the 2005 vintage as a “small harvest that gave very concentrated raw materials. Across our growers, the crop was very clean with around 13.5% potential…

By Stephen Tanzer « Two thousand five was a year to put a lot of lees in the barrel, » summarized Mounir Saouma. « The wines needed the polysaccharides from the lees to balance their strong tannins. It was a year not to rack and not to sulfur. It was a year to age the wines with a…