Description
André-Jean (“A-J”) Morin is the eighth generation of Morin to tend the vine in Arbois, beginning with his ancestor Etienne in 1704. A-J obtained organic certification in 2016 and biodynamic certification in 2019, and his approach in the vineyards is rigorously labor-intensive: not only is harvest conducted by hand, but nearly all vineyard work is performed manually. A-J even de-stems his reds by hand, using an old local tool known as a crible (famously employed by Pierre Overnoy in Pupillin): a wooden plank with grape-sized holes over which the harvested bunches are rolled back and forth until the fruit falls through.
André-Jean’s approach in the cellar is adamantly non-interventionist: he never adds yeasts, never chaptalizes, never adds sulfur before malolactic fermentation is finished, never pumps the wines, never fines, never filters, and keeps sulfur additions between 10 and 20 milligrams per liter. Despite a relative absence of controls, however, A-J’s wines are unfailingly clean, precise, and expressive—a reflection of his exacting, fastidious working regimen.
“La Cabane” (“the shack”) comes from 1.2-ha. of Ploussard in two parcels: the blue marl of Curoulet planted in the early 1980s, and the grey marl of La Touraize planted in the early 1960s. The bunches are hand-harvested and also painstakingly de-stemmed by hand. The fruit is transferred by gravity to stainless steel, where it macerates semi-carbonically for two weeks before pressing, and the wine spends six months in large used barrels before being bottled without filtration, and with just 10-mg/L of added sulfur. Remarkably pure-fruited and ethereal, “La Cabane” clocks in under 12% alcohol (A-J never chaptalizes) yet expresses immense mineral depth. In its gorgeous translucent hue, its soaring aromas of citrus zest and red apples, and its light yet persistent palate, it embodies the uniqueness of this beloved indigenous variety.