Winemaker Notes
This well-balanced wine has typical aromas of violet with an emphasis on fruit, and comes from nine different vineyards of the Gamay varietal, which are located throughout the Moulin a Vent appellation.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A juicy wine with a good structure, this is young and has firm tannins. Its black fruits and perfumed character are full of promise.
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James Suckling
Although only medium-bodied with a bright acidity that makes it feel lighter than it really is, this Moulin-a-Vent has attractive ripe blackberry fruit plus notes of licorice and wild herbs. The well-crafted, moderately dry tannins propel the stony and licorice finish. From 40-80 year old vines and matured in French oak. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Moulin-à-Vent is a richer, fleshier wine, offering up aromas of cherries, berries, licorice, spices and petals. Medium to full-bodied, with an ample core of fruit and powdery tannin that assert themselves gently on the finish, it will drink well on release.
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.