Nick Dobson Wines Moulin-à-Vent

Moulin à Vent

Le Seigneur des Beaujolais (the King of Beaujolais). There is in fact no commune or village called Moulin-à-Vent. Wines bearing the Moulin-à-Vent appellation (created in 1936) come from the commune of Romanèche-Thorins (334 hectares), and also from around Chénas (312 hectares). The name Moulin-à-Vent comes from on old windmill standing to the northwest of Romanèche-Thorins, now preserved as the last remaining specimen in the Beaujolais. This was until recently sail-less, and will be seen as such on many wine labels, reproductions of old postcards, and in old photographs lining the walls in bars and restaurants, but has now been restored. Moulin-à-Vent wines are perhaps the most Burgundian of all the Beaujolais Crus; they are robust, with much tannin, and are the most full-bodied (and usually the most expensive) Beaujolais wines. In a serial Beaujolais-tasting, Moulin-à-Vent will normally be served last. In its youth it is a vivid ruby-red, with fine bouquet, though Moulin-à-Vent ages well by Beaujolais standards, and as it does so loses some of the fruity-freshness typical of Beaujolais, and acquires more Pinot-like characteristics. Our range includes a couple of young ones which are quite drinkable now, and some mature specimens for those who prefer not to wait.

Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Domaine Bernard Santé
Ref: 3332100

This excellent Moulin from Bernard Santé (see also Juliénas and Chénas) comes from a small parcelle (1 hectare) of vines grown on granitic soil with rich veins of manganese, giving the wine its particular characteristics. When young, it has aromas of iris, roses, black fruits, and spice, the dominant note being of violets. It has a deep ruby red colour, with a powerful taste, and will keep well - maybe 5-10 years, developing its character as it ages. Served around 15°-18°, it goes particularly well with red meats, meat dishes in sauces, particular strong tasting game dishes such as wild boar and venison, and fine cheeses (especially a good crumbly goats cheese).

Price: £12.35 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2005 Domaine Champagnon
Ref: 3332082

This Moulin hits you with an intense aroma packed with raisin, plum, blackberry and chocolate. Complex fruit flavours including dark berries and cherry. Dark red in colour. a little restrained when young (yet eminently drinkable now), this powerful full-bodied wine will further develop over several years, and is definitely one for the Christmas dinner. A real treat. A magnum of the 1997 Moulin from Domaine Champagnon sampled recently was truly superb.

Limited stock.

Price: £10.95 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Domaine Champagnon
Ref: 3332123

This Moulin hits you with an intense aroma packed with raisin, plum, blackberry and chocolate. Complex fruit flavours including dark berries and cherry. Dark red in colour. a little restrained when young (yet eminently drinkable now), this powerful full-bodied wine will further develop over several years, and is definitely one for the Christmas dinner. A real treat. A magnum of the 1997 Moulin from Domaine Champagnon sampled recently was truly superb.

Available now.

Price: £12.35 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Domaine Matray Lilian and Sandrine Matray
Ref: 3332119

This is the first vintage of Matray's Moulin, a new wine in their range. And what a wine! A dark ruby red with aromas of iris, spices and ripe fruit. Very drinkable already but will improve with bottle age. Allow to breathe for an hour, and serve around 14° C with red meat, game, and strong cheeses.

Price: £12.95 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin à Vent Wines from Domaine du Granit
These wines deserve a very special mention. Alfred Gino Bertolla & his son-in-law Franck Bessone of Domaine du Granit make some of the very best Moulin-à-Vent you will ever taste. Not only gifted winemakers, they are also fortunate enough to own some of the finest parcels of vines in the appellation - including many extremely old vines - some 100+ years old, which were producing wine before the outbreak of the First World War, when Britain still had a decent empire. They are amazing ancient examples, producing tiny quantities of grapes with huge concentration of flavours and pigment. The vineyards are located on a windswept hillside with soils of decomposed pink granite, high above the famous eponymous windmill. This can indeed seem a bleak place in winter, when the bare gnarled vines under leaden skies give little hint as to what these extraordinary plants are capable of producing. The slightly cooler temperatures due to a higher elevation, the shallow and very rocky granitic soil, and the age of the vines all explain the austerity of the wines in their youth, with strong mineral character and great aging potential.
The wines are rich, dark, heady and perfumed - a very Burgundian style of Gamay, not really comparable with other Beaujolais Crus. The reason stems from the soil - Moulin-à-Vent has very unique decomposed pink granite topsoil over varying concentrations of manganese (iron ore). Vines don't particularly like this, and drive their roots far to work hard to produce fruit - and in doing so bring all those minerals to it. Soil types such as these give places like Hermitage, Côte-Rôtie, and Cornas their highly mineral quality, and Bertolla's Gamay seems to have many of the characteristics normally associated with Syrah grown in this tricky spots, whilst still maintaining the black cherry Burgundian qualities. In the cellar a minimalist approach is adopted, working simply with natural yeasts, long maceration, slow fermentation, barrel-aging, and bottling without filtration. The resulting range of wines bears little resemblance to the fresh fruity specimens for which Gamay is famous. Somewhat grander in style altogether, these are how old-time great Gamay can taste. They can be a little austere when young (less so the Cuvée Tradition), ideally needing some bottle age; they age beautifully, like fine Burgundies. They are perhaps best classified as halfway between the style of a heavier Beaujolais Cru and a Burgundy. To drink one of these Moulins is to experience a fabulous expression of the soil, two men's dedication, and complexity you would never have thought possible from a Beaujolais. Domaine du Granit was created in 1974, when Alfred and his wife, née Colette Mazoyer, succeeded her father, Lucien Mazoyer. Her grandfather Claude had acquired some vineyards in the hamlet of La Rochelle in 1918, 6 years before the creation of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. Changes are afoot at the Domaine today, with Gino Bertolla having taken semi-retirement, but it's future is assured, with day-to-day running of the Domaine now managed by Franck Bessone, Gino's son-in-law, who also makes some super Chénas at nearby Domaine de la Croix Barraud. And Gino's still there.

Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Cuvée Tradition Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332113

*(*)

This wine is made from grapes from 45 year-old vines with yields restricted to 50hl/hA. It spends 6 months in foudres after fermentation is complete and was bottled in May. It is still young and M. Bertolla reckons it will improve with further bottle aging. Nevertheless, to me it seems very approachable already. Deep ruby red, with a complex powerful nose full of earth, spice, truffles and smoke, on the palate it is dry, full-bodied, and full of rich cooked red and black fruit; very juicy and sappy, with great length. A lovely wine.

Available now.

Price: £12.35 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Cuvée Tradition Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas

Moulin-à-Vent 2009 Cuvée Tradition Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332146

*(*)

This wine is made from grapes from a number of sites, with vines aged on average 45 years, The terroir is composed mainly of pink granite called "Ghorra"; exposition is generally south-south-east at an average altitude of around 250 meters. Yields are restricted to 50hl/hA. Vinification is conventional with a maceration of 10 to 12 days, with 6 months in large oak foudres after fermentation is complete. Bottling was at the start of June 2010. The overall treatment gives a wine which may be aged for a minimum 4 to 5 years and often up to 10 years.

TN in preparation.

Available from 23 June 2010.

Price: £12.95 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2009 Cuvée Tradition Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas

Moulin-à-Vent 2006 "Les Caves" Vieilles Vignes Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332115

**(*)

It is remarkable how Bertolla's Moulin-à-Vents taste like Syrah-based Rhône reds, and Côte-Rôtie especially. There is a powerfully mineral side to these wines, a smokiness, and an almost meaty texture. Tasted blind, most people would not guess they were Gamay-based Beaujolais. "Les Caves" is just such an example. The average age of the vines in "Les Caves", through which runs a rich vein of manganese, is around 65 years, although some are much, much older. The wine spent 12 months in oak before bottling.

A very dark ruby red, this wine has a dusty earthy nose, gamey and with hints of lavender and crushed white pepper. On the palate it is rich and powerful, with a gamey earthiness and plenty of intense black and red fruits - raspberry and cassis - and a peppery undertone. All that and yet remarkably smooth - in fact this is smoother and silkier than the 2001 "La Rochelle" - which is somewhat more masculine in style. Definitely one for food, and built for the long haul - this is still very young.

Price: £15.50 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2005 "La Rochelle" Vieilles Vignes Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332114

***

For me this was the best of Bertolla's Moulins - and I did taste rather a lot of them! "La Rochelle" is the vineyard containing the highest proportion of the oldest vines - the average age is over 70 years - and it is here that most of the centenarian vines are to be found. Such vineyards are most easily detected from aerial photographs - where they appear patchy, scraggy, unkempt, and full of gaps left by vines that have met their maker. Compare this with the nice neat rows of bright green - with not a gap in sight - more typical of recent plantings. "La Rochelle" has somewhat stonier, rockier soil than "Les Caves", and this austerity produces wines that are more masculine and which remain quite closed in their youth. Very big on the palate, drinking well now.

Just a few bottles left.

Price: £15.50 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 "La Rochelle" Vieilles Vignes Alfred Gino Bertolla Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332148

**(*)

"La Rochelle" is the vineyard containing the highest proportion of the oldest vines - the average age is over 70 years - and it is here that most of the centenarian vines are to be found. Such vineyards are most easily detected from aerial photographs - where they appear patchy, scraggy, unkempt, and full of gaps left by vines that have met their maker. Compare this with the nice neat rows of bright green - with not a gap in sight - more typical of recent plantings. "La Rochelle" has somewhat stonier, rockier soil than "Les Caves", and this austerity produces wines that are more masculine and which remain quite closed in their youth. The 2007 vintage, newly released in early 2010, is a notably younger wine than the 2005, which is now at its peak. The 2007 is arguably similar now to the 2005 at the same point in its evolution, and will certainly benefit from some time in bottle.

A deep granite red, with a nose of vanilla, spice, and dark berry fruits. On the palate intense dark berry fruit, with well-judged oak, powerful gamey flavours, fine tannins. Very long.

Price: £16.00 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Cuvée Lucile Maud Franck Bessone Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas
Ref: 3332147

***

This is a very special wine indeed - a premium Moulin-à-Vent named after Franck Bessone's daughters - the practice of naming wines after the winemaker's offspring is one I've seen quite a bit of in Austria, but this is the first such example I've found in Beaujolais. The wine is made with grapes which come from old vines from the very best Moulin-à-Vent parcels in the Domaine du Granit estate. The grapes are picked manually at optimum ripeness levels, and destalked prior to the individual berries being put in a tank; the temperature is lowered to 10° C and then slowly allowed to rise over the next 4-5 days, and fermentation starts spontaneously using yeasts occurring naturally on the grape skins. To give the wine structure, the ancient method of pigeage, or "punching down", is applied twice daily to maximise tannin extraction. There follows a long and slow fermentation over three weeks and then the wine is aged in oak barrels for about 18 months. During aging, the wine is racked once.

A big-framed Moulin, with substantial depth of colour; on the nose are vanilla, oak, and violets, with newly-cut hay and spice aromas. On the palate it is smoothy yet dense with great depth of flavour; lots of fruit, an almost meaty texture, and a gamey earthiness. Huge length, with spice and violets.

Allow to breathe for at least an 2 hours before consumption, and ideally longer. Serve around 14-15 deg C with rich red meat dishes, stews, game etc. 13.0% ABV.

Tiny allocation - maximum 6 bottles per customer.

Price: £17.95 (Including VAT at 17.5%)

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Moulin-à-Vent 2007 Cuvée Lucile Maud Franck Bessone Domaine du Granit La Rochelle, Chénas