David Moret is a micro-négociant specializing in white Burgundy. His tiny cellar is hidden away, down an alley in the center of Beaune. There is no sign that says "Degustation - Vente des Vins". You... Read More

David Moret is a micro-négociant specializing in white Burgundy. His tiny cellar is hidden away, down an alley in the center of Beaune. There is no sign that says "Degustation - Vente des Vins". You rarely see his bottles in shops in France but you do find them on wine lists of outstanding restaurants. Sommelier Gaylord Robert always bought them for l'Arpege, Alain Passard's three star restaurant in Paris.

Moret went to wine school in the nineties, graduated but owned no vines. He got into trade by selling equipment to vignerons. He gained their trust. He made connections.

By the late 1990s he bought some barrels and some grapes and started experimenting. By 2000 he had his own label. He buys small amounts of grapes from top growers and meticulously oversees every aspect of production: treating the vines with yeast extracts and copper sulfate, harvesting in small baskets, the pressing, the vinification and hand bottling barrel by barrel.

All his wines are barrel fermented with indigenous yeasts. After 9 to 12 months of elevage they are bottled unfined and unfiltered. He is a brilliant winemaker and eleveur which is one reason growers sell him grapes. They get to see what someone else does with their raw materials.