Jean-Paul Brun Domaine des Terres Dorees Moulin-A-Vent 2017
-
Suckling
James
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The cru of Moulin-à-Vent is generally considered the source of the potentially longest-lived, most structured Beaujolais, thanks mainly to the high manganese and iron content of its clay-heavy soils. Here Jean-Paul farms 4 hectares of 30-to-45-year-old vines whose roots are forced to go deep by the thin, sandy, pink-granite top soils. As for all Terres Dorées reds, the vinification is traditional Burgundian. The grapes are rigorously sorted and destemmed, crushed and fermented with indigenous yeasts and no sulfur. Maceration lasts up to 6 weeks for the Moulin (the longest along with the Grille Midi Fleurie); aging, unique among his wines, takes place in old oak barrels, for up to 10 months, before bottling with minimal filtration and a small amount of sulfur.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Ripe and elegant, this is an excellent Moulin-à-Vent that has plenty of depth, without a hint of boldness. The power creeps up on you slowly from behind, like a kid playing a clever trick on you. Long, silky finish. Drink or hold.
Other Vintages
2020-
Suckling
James
-
Parker
Robert
-
Parker
Robert
-
Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine
-
Suckling
James
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.