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2019 turned out to be a very good vintage and very sunny. Frost on April 3-4 along with summer heatwaves led to a low yield. The vintage started late. Overall conditions that created balanced, fine and aromatic wines.
Tasting notes: Light, slightly earthy bouquet, medium-bodied with supple ripe tannins, rich palate of fresh dark fruits. An immediate pleasure, this wine is ready to drink now.
92 / 100 Wine & Spirit
A selection from 40-year-old vines growing in granite soils with manganese, this wine fermented with some whole clusters (20 perfect) and then aged for 16 months in stainless steel. That élevage preserved the generous depths of fruit in the wine, floral up front, edged with bright tannins and green peppercorn spice in the end. A bold and zesty 2018, this will benefit from a year in the bottle age.
91 / 100 Vinous
Shimmering ruby. Powerful blackberry, cherry and licorice aromas are complicated by suggestions of smoky minerals and violet. Well-concentrated and broad in the mouth, offering bitter cherry and dark berry flavors enlivened by a snap of cracked pepper. Slowly building tannins frame the finish, which lingers with very good, dark-fruit driven persistence.
Moulin-à-Vent is one of the most prestigious of the crus of Beaujolais, and has a reputation for making age worthy wines. And there’s a new star on the scene, the revitalized Château du Moulin-à-Vent, which has been doing impressive work in the vineyards and cellars since being purchased by the Parinet family.
The famous windmill of Moulin-à-Vent sits at the heart of this 620 hectare Cru in Beaujolais, in the village of Romanèche Thorins. And just below it is the impressive Château du Moulin-à-Vent, which has been renovated extensively since it was acquired by Jean-Jacques Parinet in 2009. Parinet originally came from Beaujolais but then made his money in the IT business, and for the last few years he’s been assisted by Brice Laffond, who oversees both the winery and the 30 hectares of vines the domaine owns. His son Edouard also works with the domaine, and both act as co-proprietors.
In Moulin-à-Vent, the most interesting terroirs aren’t at the top or the bottom of the cru, but in a strip running east to west, and the Château is in the middle of this strip, looking across to the border of the appellation (some trees mark this), and over to Fleurie.
The Château has 130 parcels of vines, and gradually they are being trellised, although it’s not possible to use cane pruning in the crus – the vines must be head trained. One of the motivations for the trellising is to make it easier to work the soils. Romanèche Thorins, the local town, used to be the site of a manganese mine, and the soils here have a high concentration of metallic oxides.
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