Red

Organic / Biodynamic

In 2022, Le Puy’s Amoreau family acquired the vineyards and cellar of their friend and neighbor Regis Moro, a fellow low-tech low-interventionist whose vibrant, rugged, makeup-less wines never fully connected with the Parker-influenced times during which he operated, but which have stood the test of time with aplomb. Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars “Johanna”--Regis' top wine, from Merlot between 70 and 120 years of age planted in the sandy clay-limestone of the Castillon-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation.

Sometimes a winegrower is too far ahead of their time to be properly appreciated during their career. Regis Moro, along with his wife Therese and son Sebastien, founded Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars in the early 1980s, in the rolling hills of the Castillon-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation, mere kilometers from the Amoreau family’s legendary Chateau Le Puy.

Locale is not all Moro shared with Le Puy, however: Regis took a similarly rigorous approach in his vineyards, working organically from the outset and gradually incorporating biodynamic treatments; he also adopted low-intervention cellar work, favoring spontaneous fermentations, eschewing temperature control and new oak, and bottling very gently and naturally.

Moro’s focus on farming and fermentation over flashiness, however, put him out of step with his era, a time during which the rise of powerful critics steered Bordeaux well off-course from traditional practices and into the realm of big extraction, big oak, and big impact. While gaining recognition in certain circles even garnering “Winemaker of the Year” in the influential French publication Le Point in the early 2000s Regis’ project never quite took off in the way he hoped (or, we think, deserved), and in 2022 he sold his vineyards and winery to the Amoreau family, longtime friends and supporters. 

Along with the acreage and the cellar, the Amoreaus were thrilled to obtain a treasure trove of older vintages which had lain undisturbed since they were bottled. The sandy clay-limestone terroir of Champs de Mars is beautifully suited to Merlot, which comprises 80% of the wine’s blend, complemented by 20% Cabernet Franc. Named after his granddaughter, “Johanna” was Regis Moro’s top wine, containing his oldest vines (70 years on average, with a parcel planted in 1904) and employing a more serious elevage than the basic cement-aged Champs de Mars bottling. The 2000 Johanna was hand-harvested, destemmed completely, given a 48-hour pre-fermentation maceration, and vinified in 50-hectoliter tronconic oak casks for 60 days with manual punch-downs; it then spent 18 months in well-used 225-liter barrels clarifying naturally, and was bottled without fining or filtration.