Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent Moulin-a-Vent 2015
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
There’s black raspberry richness at the center of this wine, concentrated within tannins that draw their power from both grape skins and oak. Brice Laffond destems this fruit, then cold-soaks it with pumpovers before and after fermentation, so there’s no carbonic maceration of the berries. Then he ages it for a year and a half in oak barrels. The barrel spice comes across in notes of cumin and coriander, charred meat and clove, while the fruit is powerful enough to outlast it with generous umami grace. For the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is beautifully balanced, with rich tannins and great concentration. Ripe black fruits dominate the structure, giving it density that is enhanced by the wood aging. The aftertaste is balanced, juicy and ready to drink.
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Wine Spectator
Strawberry compote and cherry tart notes are kept focused by fresh acidity that accentuates the fragrant rose petal, mineral and spice elements in this medium-bodied red. Spice and mineral details echo on the moderately tannic finish.
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James Suckling
A more modern, meaty and spicy style with plush, ripe red cherries and red plums. Some roses, too. A very smooth array of tannins and plenty of freshness. Drink now or hold.
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Located in the southernmost tip of the Burgundy region, Moulin-à-Vent was one of the first appellations awarded AOC status in 1936. Chateau du Moulin-à-Vent, named for the 300-year-old stone windmill atop the hill of Les Thorins, dates back to 1732, when it was called Chateau des Thorins. Today, the estate encompasses 37 hectares (91.4 acres) of the appellation’s finest climats — Les Vérillats, Le Champ de Cour, La Rochelle — planted to Gamay Noir averaging 40 years in age. The underlying granite soil is rich in iron oxide, copper and manganese, which may account for the wines’ aging potential. Since 2009, under the new ownership of the Parinet family, investment in the winemaking facilities and the vineyards has resulted in plot-specific signature wines expressing the individual characteristics of each exceptional terroir.
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.