Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent

History

The exceptional qualities of the terroir was first detected by Philiberte Pommier, who set about organizing the vineyards. One particular plot, right next to the chateau, provided the perfect soil for Gamay and is now used to make the special cuvee Clos de Londres.

In 1862 Philiberte was 99 years old and achieved the recognition her effort deserved, with the 1854, 1858 and 1859 vintages ranked the best wines in the Macon at the Universal Exhibition in London. In 2009 Jean-Jacques Parinet bought the estate, and recognized that considerable investment was needed in both winemaking facilities and the vineyards.

70000 vines have been replanted, and the winemaking and ageing cellars have a complete makeover. Parinet also brought a quality strategy, resulting in vinfication of four individual wines, and the vineyards also now switched to reasoned agriculture since his arrival.

Estate

Located 10km south of Macon, in the southernmost tip of the Bourgogne region, it owes its name to the old windmill that stands on top of the hill of ‘les Thorins’. Before 1936 and the creation of the AOC Moulin-a-Vent the estate was called Chateau des Thorins.

It stretches over 37 hectares of vines and owned by the family Parinet. Planted with a density of 9000 vines per hectare, the yield is very low at 20 to 35 hl/ha. Average vine age is 40 years and the vines are gobelet pruned.

The granite soil is rich in iron oxide, copper and manganese, providing ideal conditions for the appellation’s single varietal Gamay. The estate uses natural soil amendment and manual week control, with soil preparation to encourage roots to dig down deep.

The finest plots are manually disbudded to encourage maturity and concentration, with trellised plots to maximize leaf exposure. Grapes are picked manually, and transported immediately to the winery in small containers to avoid the juice from pre-oxidation and avoids the clusters being crushed.

The vines are vinified and aged in accordance with natural cycles. The estate has renewed its entire barrel stock of 200 plus barrels, made from the best coopers, with average age of barrel being 2.5 years.

I have recently tasted the 2010 vintage and below is my tasting note:

Appearance

Bright and clear, it has medium ruby color, with pinkish rims and legs.

Nose

Clean, with medium (-) intensity of red fruit of raspberry and strawberry, tropical fruit of banana, mineral notes of earth, animal notes of leather, kernel notes of almond, pungent spice of pepper. The wine is developing.

Palate

Dry with high acidity, the wine has medium tannin of ripe and a bit grippy, with medium alcohol and light body, demonstrating medium (-) intensity of flavors including red fruit of raspberry and cherry, animal notes of leather, sweet spice of cinnamon, black fruit of plum. The wine has a medium (+) finish.

Conclusion

Good quality Beaujolais Cru with a fairly light nose but showing good complexity, the wine has the typical high acidity, demonstrating the light body and juicy characters of the varietal but also a relatively high tannin level for the grape, highlighting its ageing potential. The palate is not too concentration but the length is fairly long. Ready to drink now, and not intend for further ageing.