Tasted in Moulin à Vent with Brice Laffond, Chloé Marlot (who’s newly responsible for the press and communications) & Eduoard Parinet 06 February 2023.
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
Brice on 2021 & 2022:
“We were very happy with the 2022 harvest volume – we finished our harvest in August too! Our record of 37 hl/ha was done in 2020 and we were only a little lower than that. After 2021, we are much more scared of the frost, so we now prune really late – there was a bit of snow in 2022 but we didn’t get very frosted. Here 2017 was the worst volume – but that was due to hail – but still, 2021 was very low – 18 hl/ha so we can say just about half a harvest – it was a vintage where we started harvesting one month later than in 2022 but almost no sugar was needed to augment the fermentations – our maturities were all around 12.5°.”
The wines
Splendid whites – as ever – from this producer but at this stage of their elevage, as wonderfully fluid and textured as some of the reds are – there’s quite a lot of green notes to be found.
The 2021 bottling is planned for March:
2021 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent
The only wine produced here that’s an assembly of different terroirs around MaV
A big and broad nose. Darker red fruit with just a hint of green herb. Lots of energy, silky with a growing with a decent concentration to this flavour. The finish is an impressive one.
2021 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…
This nose has some pine-needle pyrazine greenery but also a bit of graphite minerality – a floral freshness growing too. More incisive, cool fruit – growing in intensity. Clean and broad – I love this finishing intensity.
2021 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 most impacted by the frost here.
The least herb, the most floral. A gorgeous, fluid quality in the mouth. Really shows some extra complexity – that finishes wonderfully. Simply an excellent wine.
2021 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent La Rochelle
2.5 ha all worked by horse – it’s high-density plantation here – ‘I would lose too much time trying to work it with a tractor’
Hmm – the pyrazine is stronger in this one. More concentrated but cool and fresh – tons of energy again. A slowly lingering, delicious finishing wine. But watch out for those green notes.
2021 Château du Moulin à Vent, Moulin à Vent Clos de Londres
A little extra colour again. Florals intertwined with a little licorice. Supple, silky, lovely texture that starts silk and grows a little more velvety with the visibility of the tannin growing. More saline – a narrower but still very long finish, the greens only very subtle in this case.
Les Blancs of Domaine Roc des Boutires…
“In 2021, we managed to produce a little more than 20 hl/ha so slightly more than in Moulin à Vent. Our last grapes were almost picked in October. The Bourgogne and the entry cuvées of the Chateau are sealed with DIAM. The Pouillys are still all with cork and some cuvées are with NdTech. 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:”
2021 Bourgogne Blanc
Mainly grapes from Leynes and near Mâcon-Peronne, from contracts
Hmm – nice – it’s a wide nose with a very faint biscuity toast – very inviting. Generous and silky but with a direct and tasty line – that holds very, very well – delicious wine.
2021 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. Augmented with some contract fruit – a long-term contract here – since 2010.
Broader, warmer ripe fruit – there’s a faint spice to this. Nicely mineral and cool, with a silky richness again but a wine with enough intensity that you won’t be complaining – fine, clean and mineral finishing.
2021 Pouilly-Fuissé La Granges Murgers
More clay with gryphées, deeper soil – high terroir, similar to La Roche – later harvesting. Planted in the 1970s – so not the oldest vines here.
There’s some ripe yellow citrus again, here with some honied and acacia notes too. Yes fresher, yes a more cool minerality but here is a mouthful of wine and one that’s much more floral.
2021 Pouilly-Fuissé En Bertillione
All from the higher slopes ~300m, with gravels but below is very limestone. Plain-east-facing
The oak is visible in this one – fresh but still some warmth of ripe citrus. Large-scale – full of energy – this has delicious complexity accented with some salinity. Lovely citrus finish.
2021 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. ‘Always lots of grapes – but small ones with very little juice!’
Some extra creamy oak again – but the core is concentrated with the most floral-perfumed background. The largest scale – but shrinking a little after the first impact. This is the wine that I’d wait the longest for – no doubt – it’s absolutely delicious but needs 3 years for the oak to fade.