Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars 'Johanna' 2000

Profile & Story

Regis Moro founded Vieux Chateau Champs de Mars in the early 1980s with his wife Therese and son Sebastien, in the Castillon-Cotes de Bordeaux appellation near the celebrated Chateau Le Puy. He farmed organically from the outset, gradually incorporating biodynamic practices, and worked in the cellar with a deliberately low-intervention hand -- favoring spontaneous fermentations, avoiding temperature control and new oak, and bottling gently and naturally. This restraint ran against the extraction- and oak-driven trends of the 1990s and 2000s, even as it earned Moro a 'Winemaker of the Year' recognition from Le Point in the early 2000s. Johanna, named for his granddaughter, was his flagship cuvee, sourced from his oldest vines -- an average of 70 years old, including a parcel planted in 1904. The sandy clay-limestone terroir favors Merlot, which makes up 80% of the blend alongside 20% Cabernet Franc. Hand-harvested and fully destemmed, the fruit underwent a 48-hour cold maceration before fermenting in 50-hectoliter oak vats for 60 days with manual punch-downs; the wine then aged 18 months in used 225-liter barrels and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. The estate was acquired by the Amoreau family in 2022, along with an extensive library of Moro's back vintages, including this 2000.