Closerie du Pelan 2001, Bordeaux

Back in 1984, a local named Régis Moro left his career as a painter and returned to his roots, purchasing a property called Vieux Château Champs de Mars which straddles the Côtes de Francs and Côtes de Castillon appellations. An old friend of Jean-Pierre Amoreau, Régis similarly eschewed chemical treatments and modern gadgetry from the outset, obtaining organic certification with the 2008 vintage and biodynamic certification in 2013. While Moro’s star rose gradually on the home front—he was named “Winemaker of the Year” by the French newspaper Le Point in the early 2000s—large-scale commercial success eluded him. By the late-2010s, the winery was in mild disrepair, and the vineyards, still beautifully tended, were rife with missing vines, yielding a mere 15-20 hectoliters per hectare as a result. The Amoreaus saw an opportunity to help an old friend and to produce wine from a different terroir—the Moro vineyards have more sand and silt than Le Puy, with less of a reddish cast to the soil—and they bought the property in early 2022.