Tasted in Moulin à Vent with Brice Laffond, Morgane Chambriard & Eduoard Parinet 07 February 2022.
Château du Moulin-à-Vent
4 Les Thorins
71570 Romanèche-Thorins
Tel: +33 3 85 35 50 68
www.chateaudumoulinavent.com
More reports with Domaine Château Moulin à Vent
More reports with Domaine Roc des Boutires
Here’s a domaine that usually shows wines one year later – so typically I’d have been tasting the 2019s on this visit – but the 2020s were ready – so it looks like I’ve missed out on the 2019s!
Brice on 2020:
“A very good vintage with wines that are powerful but not heavy – we decided to harvest quite early – we were one of the first. We saw really big differences in maturity depending on the soils and also some small differences in those parcels that were frosted in 2019. The high parts had plenty of maturity, and very early. We normally harvest in 10 days max but it was nearly a month before we finished. Our first grapes were cut on 18 August – some younger vines. The first harvested and the last harvested were sold as grapes – the latter over 16° which we haven’t seen since 2009! It’s a good volume though – nearly 40 hl/ha. There was mainly just triage to remove the dried grapes. We fermented quite cool – only about 25°C. For us, 2020 is a more classic vintage than 2019.
“Pouilly was also a good harvest – around the same as in 2017/2018 – 45-50 hl/ha. Apart from frosts and hail it’s quite a consistent harvest here as all the vines are quite mature – but the harvest was later than in MaV, as the vines are planted on the more clay soils were a little blocked – we had a small shower of rain and then picked the first grapes after that ~25/26 August.”
The wines
The whites showed very well, some of the reds were too reticent to be definitive – but it looks like a double success here.
2020 tank samples – only the first is bottled – 18 months elevage on average – looking to bottle from middle of March for most. ‘We used plenty of whole clusters and had no issues with fermentations:’
2020 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.’
A nose to fall into; pure dark fruit with energy. Mouth-filling but with good direction – cool fruit, beautifully textured – generosity of flavour without ever giving the impression of fat… Long with a modest graphite minerality. That’s simply excellent and a great buy…
2020 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent
There’s a faint reduction at the base and a modest spice in the higher tones. Extra-wide – beautifully textured and showing cool fruit again – there’s just an extra openness to this, beautifully mouth-watering in the finish. The previous wine only bettered this in clarity – but it’s a finished wine unlike this…
2020 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Verillats
Windy, hot and dry here with not much soil – a large part planted in the 1950s…
A narrower but deeper nose, a little cushioned too. Also broad, a little more reductive. There’s extra intensity and more power in support. The finish with salinity and licorice accents – lots of extra finishing complexity – and holding strong too. Like the previous a little more elevage is in the works…
2020 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.
Plenty of colour. That’s broad and a little peppery – nice. Nicely bubbling energy here – very different in shape – not focused on direction and depth of texture – more about energy and easy waves of delicious flavour – super waves of flavour in this finish. A little licorice again but less than the previous…
2020 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent La Rochelle
More transparent colour. A larger nose that’s more floral perfumed – the first. The most structural but with super energy – this is new favourite after the first wine. Complex and energetic – mouth-watering deliciously with lots of attractive mineral accents.
2020 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Grand Savarin
From au caves – more from the east with plenty of quartz in the soil and rocky but it never seems to struggle from lack of water.
A large-scaled nose of floral perfume and spice. Cool fruit, composed flavour, slowly melting over the palate. There’s intensity here, modestly spiced accents to this flavour. Wide again with lots of intensity and very long.
A broad nose again – fine vibrancy here – building a blend of the floral and mineral in these aromas. Cool impact, broad and hyper-complex. This is the best synthesis of all these styles. The First wine remains the best for today – but that’s no surprise – but this has everything for those who are a little more patient! Bravo!
Les Blancs of Domaine Roc des Boutires…
Pouillys are still all with cork and some cuvées are with NdTech – the entry cuvées of Chateau are DIAM – ‘If you try to save money on a cork it’s a catastrophe! For the whites we find DIAM makes the wines more austere at the start’:
2020 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. This bottled before the harvest – all the rest were done 2 weeks ago…
A nice vibrancy of ripe but acid fruit – really an invitation. Wide – that’s really silky and juicy despite lots of concentration.
All from the higher slopes ~300m, with gravels but below is very limestone. Plain-east-facing
Similar energy but here less overtly ripe and with little noble reduction. Mineral and very fine, reductive but in the best sense. So mouth-watering with a clarity of great, great flavour. Bravo!
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé La Granges Murgers
More clay with gryphées, deeper soil – high terroir, similar to La Roche – later harvesting.
A nose almost intermediate to the previous wines. More mineral and direct even than the last. Broad, beautifully mouth-watering this finish more discrete than the last but with equally delicious clarity. Almost a great wine!
2020 Pouilly-Fuissé ‘Vers Cras’
But this the part that’s not 1er cru so they don’t have a name for it yet…
A deeper nose, less open but still packed with material. Mouth-filling, gorgeously textured again, faintly reductive in an attractive style. Just a beautiful thing in the mouth. Delicious wine again that plays over the palate in the finish…
Plain-south, vines that touch those of Boutuères. Three barrels – two are wood the other stainless-steel
Less broad but a deeper aroma – great clarity – here’s the first wine where you can see the oak too. Extra incisive and direct – super mineral. Great wine but wait 2-3 years for the barrel to fade.
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. ‘Always lots of grapes – but small ones with very little juice!’
A very different aroma – citrus but lots of citrus skins – so aromatic – that’s a beauty! Incisive again, melting with cool mineral concentration – a little barrel but only faint. Super mobile flavour and texture. Potentially great wine.