Pierre Morey

In the center of Meursault there are several rather modest-looking sandstone-colored stone houses. One of these contains a cellar, where when you descend, you feel that time has stopped. Under the shelter of cobwebbed and dusty walls rests a row of oak barrels in which several batches of wine mature in peace, which eventually end up in the glasses of knowledgeable wine lovers.

The Morey family has been working as wine growers in the Meursault village area for six centuries. Since 1793, each generation has not only taken care of the family gardens, but also made wines from the grapes of the area. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, the orchards in Burgundy were divided among several farmers. The grandfather of the current generation, Auguste Morey, was one of the farmers of Domaine Comte Lafon in 1935, when the 14 hectares of Comte Lafon were divided among nine different contract farmers. In those days, Burgundy wines were not easy to sell, as the depression of 1929 was still visible on the wine market. Almost none of the winegrowers received income from their orchards, but Auguste continued to work on the plots dedicated to him, which were located, among others, in the orchards of Perrières, Genevrières and Charmes.

At the end of 1971, Auguste's son Pierre founded a new farm bearing his name. Auguste slowly began to transfer the cultivation rights of the orchards to his son, who thus became a contract farmer for the Lafon, Poirier and Morey families. Previously, the wines produced by the family themselves had been sold under the name of Auguste Morey-Genelot, and the new Pierre Morey name appeared alongside the previous one until 1983, when the last Auguste Morey wine was produced. In 1984, Lafon decided to take over all plots that had previously served as rented nurseries, so the Morey family was left with only the nurseries they owned. As the amount of work decreased, Pierre Morey took over as cellar master of Domaine Leflaive for a period of twenty years. In years From 1988 to 2008, Pierre was responsible not only for the orchards located in Puligny-Montrachet in Leflaive, but also for the winemaking of the estate.

In 1991, Pierre started using not only organic but also biodynamic working methods in his own and managed nurseries. Due to the loss of previous contract plantations, the family decided in 1992 to establish a négociant company bearing the Morey-Blanc name to compensate for the lost orchard areas. Each wine produced under the Pierre Morey and Morey-Blanc names comes from a different appellation, so for example two Meursaults from different village levels are not produced by the family. The family's own orchards were certified for fully biodynamic production in 1997. Around the same time, Pierre's daughter Anne started working alongside her father, and today Anne is responsible not only for the orchards on the farm, but also for the wines made in the cellars.

The farm owns 10 hectares of paddocks located in the villages of Monthèlie, Pommard, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault. For more than 20 years, clones have not been used as material in the nurseries of the farm, but the heirlooms of our own nurseries are used to plant new vines in accordance with the selection massale principle. In addition to these, grapes are bought from wine growers who follow the same exact principles in tending their orchards as the family itself. Winemaking for all grapes follows the house's traditional methods.

All of the estate's red wine racks are removed before the wines are fermented. For a long time, Anne was against wines fermented in whole bunches, as she did not like the characteristics that the use of grapes brought to the wines. Recently, however, Anne's thoughts towards the use of racks have changed after she tasted a few wines made in this way that she considers successful. However, in order to change her own operating methods, Anne wants to learn the methods in peace, so for now all the farm's red wines are made without racks. All wines ferment without added yeast strains in large oak containers or small oak barrels. New barrels are used progressively more for the maturation of red Premier and Grand Cru wines, and for white wines already from the village level. The barrel size is a classic Burgundian 228 liters, because bigger barrels would fill the cellar too quickly and it is not easy for Anne to move them by herself. All the estate's white wines go through malolactic fermentation, but in some years this can take a long time. Anne compares her wines to children who learn to talk and walk each at their own time. The wines are allowed to mature for 12-20 months, depending on the appellation.