Winemaker Notes
Rich and powerful, these wines display the essence of their appellation with elegant fruit, supple tannins and freshness. This wine will be a good companion to all sorts of dishes: meat, fish, cheese, vegetables etc...
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
I love the way this sophisticated Moulin-a-Vent marries the bright red fruit you expect from Beaujolais with savory character and a warm, tannin base that enables it to turn the bright acidity of the gamay grape into a major asset. Long, complex finish with depth and energy in near-perfect balance.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Moulin-à-Vent is both the richest and the most refined of the three generic bottlings from the Château des Jacques, revealing aromas of cherries, smoky berries, spices and orange rind, followed by a medium to full-bodied, ample and velvety palate with lively acids and powdery structuring tannins. It's largely derived from lieu-dit Rochegrès.
-
Wine Spectator
A well-packed red, with a gamy note weaving throughout macerated cherry and plum flavors. Revealing subtle fruitcake spice, red tea and licorice notes, the plush palate is powered by chalky mineral and plush yet focused tannins.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
The bucolic region often identified as the southern part of Burgundy, Beaujolais actually doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the rest of the region in terms of climate, soil types and grape varieties. Beaujolais achieves its own identity with variations on style of one grape, Gamay.
Gamay was actually grown throughout all of Burgundy until 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banished it south, making room for Pinot Noir to inhabit all of the “superior” hillsides of Burgundy proper. This was good news for Gamay as it produces a much better wine in the granitic soils of Beaujolais, compared with the limestone escarpments of the Côte d’Or.
Four styles of Beaujolais wines exist. The simplest, and one that has regrettably given the region a subpar reputation, is Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the Beaujolais wine that is made using carbonic maceration (a quick fermentation that results in sweet aromas) and is released on the third Thursday of November in the same year as harvest. It's meant to drink young and is flirty, fruity and fun. The rest of Beaujolais is where the serious wines are found. Aside from the wines simply labelled, Beaujolais, there are the Beaujolais-Villages wines, which must come from the hilly northern part of the region, and offer reasonable values with some gems among them. The superior sections are the cru vineyards coming from ten distinct communes: St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Any cru Beajolais will have its commune name prominent on the label.