Winemaker Notes
This wine will perfectly match red meats in sauce, venison and other game and most cheeses.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
The deep blueberry nose pulls you into this remarkably ripe and beautifully balanced 2021 Moulin-a-Vent that has what we look for in single-vineyard wines from this appellation. Gentle entry, then plenty of fine tannins at the long, velvety finish where there’s some crushed stone minerality. Drink or hold.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Clos de Rochegrès sits at 360 meters in altitude on steep, sandy, granitic slopes with a southeastern exposition. The 2021 Moulin-à-Vent Clos de Rochegrès fared nicely, emitting fresh aromas of boysenberries, elderberries, lilac petals and cacao powder. The medium to full-bodied palate maintains a pleasant concentration of flavor with a core of brambly fruit yet remains lithe with bright acids and fresh cuts of eucalyptus and sea salt underpinned by a supportive weave of tight-knit, powdery tannins that carry the wine in a gentle suspension.
-
Wine Enthusiast
This wine has a reserved nose of pomegranate, red and black cherry, rhubarb, forest floor and black plum with hints of dried hay. Streaks of granite and wet river stone emerge on the palate and run in parallel with tart red fruit. The wine is still young and would benefit from further aging.
-
Wine Spectator
This salty and earthy red shows real charm, with tugs of tar and hummus revealing modest notes of cherry and singed incense. A sanguine meatiness runs from beginning to end in this simmering, savory version, offering a tangy close, with menthol freshness chiming in at the end. Drink now through 2028. 200 cases imported.
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.