Dominique Moreau

Dominique Moreau is a French entrepreneur and winemaker. She owns and operates Domaine Marie Courtin in Champagne, France where she makes biodynamic, sparkling wine.

Domaine Marie Courtin

Moreau purchased an estate in the village of Polisot, Côte des Bar, Champagne 2001. She named the Domaine after her grandmother, Marie Courtin, whom she describes as a “woman of the earth”. She began farming in 2001 and making wine in 2006.

Moreau founded the estate with an intent to produce a series of single-vineyard, single varietal, single vintage wines from Biodynamically-grown grapes. This philosophy is in contrast with traditional Champagne production, which emphasizes blending grapes, vineyards and vintages to create a consistent product.

Most of her wines come from a hillside vineyard which grows 40-45 year old massale-selection Pinot Noir. The combination of low yields, clay-limestone soils (with bands of Kimmeridgian) and an east/southeast exposure gives the wines both power and cut, with an intense brininess and minerality. Today, Moreau also grows Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc grapes.

Moreau has been farming organically since the estate's origins in 2001, and the domaine received its Ecocertification in 2009. She picks by hand and crushes the grapes whole using a wood basket press. The juice is left to settle for 24 hours before the initial fermentation.

She uses a strain of indigenous yeast that was developed during the 2003 harvest from the vintage’s fruit. After an eight to ten day fermentation, the wines undergo full malolactic fermentation. The cuvees spend nine to twelve months in stainless steel tank or oak, are bottled and left on the lees for about two and a half years.

See also

• Jacques Selosse