Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Stunning nose of violets and amarena cherry! Ripe and concentrated with plenty of fine tannins and an acidity that’s extremely elegant for the 2021 vintage. Very long finish with stacks of wet stone and licorice character, plus a touch of vanilla. Excellent aging potential. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Moulin-à-Vent Clos du Grand Carquelin opens in the glass with notes of blackberry jam, prunes, licorice, sage, forest floor and oak spice. Medium to full-bodied, the wine boasts a generous concentration of fruit upheld by a firm structure of powdery but abundant tannins that exude restraint as they build on the back end, culminating in a fragrant, leisurely finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine opens with black cherry, wet stone, fresh cranberry and hibiscus. Tight, chalky, red fruit on the palate is supported by a persistent streak of acidity and firm tannins. This cool-vintage Moulin-à-Vent would pair well with sautéed meats and vegetables dishes that crave a wine partner with acidity and depth.
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Wine Spectator
Intriguing, spicy and savory, offering a smoky, sanguine profile, with subtle notes of wild berries and red currant overshadowed by flavors of smoke, toast, charred herbs and shaved graphite. Alpine herbal freshness adds a new dimension, with green herb oil and mocha hints echoing on the medium-length finish. Drink now through 2027. 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.