Château Moulin à Vent – 2018

Update 21.2.2022(30.3.2021)billn

Brice Laffond 2021 Château Moulin à VentTasted in Moulin à Vent with Brice Laffond, 01 February 2021.

Château du Moulin-à-Vent
4 Les Thorins
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 3 85 35 50 68
www.chateaudumoulinavent.com
More reports for Domaine Château Moulin à Vent
More reports for Domaine Roc des Boutires

Brice on 2018:
For us, 2018 is good vintage – it has an important density but doesn’t have the initial austerity of, for instance, 2015 though there are some similarities – sunny vintage for instance – but 2015 was sunny for the whole of the year – whereas 2018 started wet and then just got hotter and drier. The first two wines were bottled in December 2019 and the rest in March 2020 – but we are selling wine a little younger than we once did – the 2018s are now all reserved or sold, but we keep back about 10% of the new vintages to offer wine to customers with a bit more maturity. 2018 was a good volume vintage for us – 34 hl/ha but with quite a homogenous quality we usually sell some wine in bulk – often that with newer oak – but it was much less in this vintage.

As in the previous years, the domaine shows wines that have finished elevage, not their tank or barrel samples – so 2018 for the reds, which is the currently commercial vintage. Then we followed, like last year, with the Domaine Roc des Boutires whites:

The wines

A great effort – and in both colours too – though two different vintages!

2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Couvent des Thorins
‘For us this is more about gamay on granite that comes from Moulin à Vent, rather than the other wines that are more about Moulin à Vent.’
Round, some fresh suggestions, maybe even a slightly reductive note – but this is essentially quite a timid nose. Supple, silky, concentrated wine – there’s density but also a nice freshness of flavour that sits on top – tasty wine – quite an open and easy wine – very tasty.

2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent
Deeper – an attractive freshness too – still floral but here with a little spice too. A little more direct, saline, and complex – again with a freshness of fruit. More overt layers and persistence of finish, graphite minerality starting to show itself.

2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Verillats
A rounder, more ‘together’ and more openly floral nose. Hmm, that’s super in the mouth – fuller but not a bit heavy or dense – lithe, complex and again with a similar graphite-minerality to the last wine – that’s a great wine – bravo!

2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Champs Cours
Lower altitude, nearer the Moulin, still granitic, sandy, soil but with more depth and below 20cm with some clay.
The first wine showing a little barrel ‘presence’ – but like the last, it’s round and together – it has good complexity too. A little extra width – more structural wine too – the oak, like on the nose, showing a little here, adding a small touch of austerity to the flavours but then another super finish – layered and very long, slaine like the last. Excellent

2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent La Rochelle
A more higher-toned nose – more fruit-focused and redder fruit. Extra fresh – cool fruit – mouth-filling – the best texture yet. Once more, a great finish – persistent and concentrated – bravo!
2018 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Clos de Londres
Plenty of colour here. The cleanest (least oak) of noses – there’s a width of very inviting freshness. LIke the last, cool-fruited width, just a little extra grain of tannin and more intense finishing but not to the detriment of the texture. Also a great wine – but I’d wait a little longer to open than the Rochelle!
Les Blancs of Domaine Roc des Boutires…

The volumes were about 30 hl/ha in 2019. These were bottled about one month ago – all sealed with natural cork:

2019 Mâcon-Solutre
Three parcels, one bordering Pouilly-Fuissé 1er Cru! All is done by hand here. A very small harvest – two of the parcels were strongly visited by the frost. Our sunniest parcels are at the bottom of the slopes – which had the frost so despite waiting we were largely at 12.5° – just one at 13°.
That’s ripe but it’s also a fine and vibrant nose. Direct and mineral – yes there’s some richness here – some grain of tannin too but that’s got a fine line of minerality and an open and fresh style. Quite long too – subtler concentration than the last two Mavs.

2018 Pouilly-Fuissé
The ‘assemblage’ of multiple parcels – plenty on the lowers slopes – all bar one on the Pouilly side, the other in Fuissé – though with small yields. About 1/3rd barrel elevage the rest in stainless-steel.
A more open and inviting nose – lots to find here – a modest aromatic richness. Hmm – even more fresh and direct. Faintly phenolic finishing texture – there’s concentration but a suggestion of anything that is dense. It may be the assemblage wine but it’s a great PF!

2019 Pouilly-Fuissé En Bertillione
All from the higher slopes with gravels but below is very limestone.
Open like the last but here with an extra level of really inviting complexity whilst showing it’s mineral depth too. Mouth-filling, there’s more volume here – framed with the tiny-grained tannin of the vintage. The finish has more width – almost a suggestion of honey – in the texture too. Ooh – that’s a great nose, a great finish and ‘only’ excellent in the middle.

2019 Pouilly-Fuissé Aux Bouthières
The largest parcel and oldest vines of this selection – about 70-years-old. Higher on the slope, more exposed, facing east, south-east, some clay that ‘sticks’ here but with small stones in. Elevage with 50% barrel. The last vintage without a 1er cru label – they have two other 1ers too but they are small cuvées and will only be bottled in two more weeks.
A nose with less volume but a lot of width and showing a more mineral style than the others. Wide on the palate – just like the nose – and quite mineral like the nose too. Extra saline and mineral finishing – a very young wine – but a great one!

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