By Florian Rossignol, 5 October 2020

If you drive down to Moulin-à-Vent from Côte de Beaune, what stikes you right away as you got out of the car is the wind. You can feel it immediately. It’s fitting that the Beaujolais Cru, Moulin-à-Vent takes its name from a 15th Century windmill that sits as a landmark in the vineyards. This wind combined with the iron and manganese in the soils helps to limit the yields of the vines resulting in wines of power, concentration and the ability to age for many years.
At the heart of Moulin-à-Vent is the Château du Moulin-à-Vent, established in 1732, with its collection of prized vineyards, which since 2009 has been owned by Jean-Jacques Parinet. Significant upgrades to viticultural practices and vinification have been made. This estate, already since the 2009 vintage, has caught the attention of Allen Meadows (Burghound), and David Schildknecht (Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate), and listed as one of the TOP 100 Wineries of 2021 by the New York-based Wines and Spirits Magazine, and Edouard Parinet is the current generation leading the Domaine.
Here is a brief breakdown of the cuvées:
Moulin-à-Vent – the estate wine, it is made from a South-east exposed clay-rich plateau of deeply weathered granite rock that forces the Gamay vines to go deep to find nutrients. Classic, serious Moulin-à-Vent with ripe dark cherry-like fruit, and a fresh herbal note and fine acidity. It is a Well-balanced and fine wine with tannins that are well covered, this wine is ready to drink but I suggest to keep to show Château du Moulin-à-Vent’s capacity to age.
Champ de Cour – comes from an east-facing vineyard located 220 metres in altitude and it is one of Château du Moulin-à-Vent flatter vineyards. The soils are granite and clay and are deeper. This terroir is especially good for hot vintages. This cuvée always showed a deeper, darker fruit quality on the nose leading on through to the palate, with medium-plus tannins and more body, only around 8,000 bottles are produced every vintage. In 2019, we brought Edouard Parinet to Hong Kong and hosted a “Champ de Cour” vertical tasting as one of our Burghound Symposium programme, it was a great night as we taste through one of its single-vineyard wines from eight contrasting vintages, you can find a full report here with tasting notes on that night. 
La Rochelle – is considered the most serious of wine, the ‘Grand Cru’ in the portfolio. The vines are 70 years old and are grown in full southern exposure. There is more silica in the soil here too. This wine conveyed more sweet fruit both on the nose and on the palate with flavours of dark raspberry and blackberry dominating as well as minerality and spice coming through. It’s intensely concentrated with medium-plus tannins but these are fine tannins rather than aggressive or harsh. The tannins combined with the fruit concentration and acid structure of the wine make it feel like one with many years ahead and quite worthy of cellaring. The 2016s is selected as one of the Wine of the Year 2020 by Decanter. So, if you haven’t tried the wines of Château du Moulin-à-Vent yet, I recommended you start with the 2016 La Rochelle.
Croix des Verillats – comes from one of their highest altitude vineyards, so there's a lot of wind. This east-exposed vineyard is made up of granitic sand and the soils are quite shallow. It’s my favourite wine from Château du Moulin-à-Vent. The grapes are small and concentrated creating an intense wine. I have tried the 2018s and it is very perfumed with lots of violet, floral notes as well as fresh and lively berry flavours including blackberry, raspberry and blueberry. Minerality interweaves through these mixed berries and floral aromas and you feel the presence of tannins. All these notes combine to create a medium-plus bodied wine with a long length. With time, I expect even more aromas will come through. Only around 8,000 bottles are produced in each vintage.
Clos des Londres – only produced in the very best year from a specific clos of 0.56 hectares facing the Château. This walled vineyard of decomposed granite soil is planted with vines of 40 years old. The prestige label from Château du Moulin-à-Vent, its backward and concentrated characters requires further cellaring.
 Throughout the years we managed to host many dinners and masterclasses with Edouard and share with many of our guests his serious, complex, and age-worthy, Gamayzing “Cru Beaujolais”. I always find myself walked away from these events with a greater appreciation of the wines of the Beaujolais Cru Moulin-à-Vent, and more specifically, the wines of Château du Moulin-à-Vent, as we were able to taste and see the longevity and ageability of these wines, they are serious wines with their own unique expression worthy of your cellar.

Photo credit: ©Franck Juéry