2019 Now finished: MOULIN A VENT, Domaine de L’Iris, Janin. Beaujolais

Moulin-à-Vent is the village or ‘Cru’ within Beaujolais that produces the most powerful and longest-lived wines. The Gamay grape generally makes light and fairly simple styles, but treated with care and respect it’s capable of so much more.

The words of the UK agent Thorman Hunt:
“Beautifully situated just by Le Château du Moulin-à-Vent with very fine terroir including ‘La Rochelle’ and ‘Rochegrès’, sandstone, pink granit and manganese. We were recommended to Thierry by his brother Eric who runs the famous better-known family vineyard Paul Janin.
Thierry owns 1 hectare of old vines in Moulin-à-Vent which makes up the majority of his Cuvée Tradition, and works on a further 6 hectares on a métayage basis. His Moulin-à-Vent vines are around 45-55 years old while in the ‘Rochelle’ and ‘Rochegrès’ they are older, some around 70-80 years old. He adheres to organic principles in the vineyards and in most years the grapes are whole bunch fermented and aged in old foudres. Minimal doses of SO2 are usually added during fermentation, just before bottling and the wines undergo a gentle filtration.”

This is concentrated and serious Beaujolais, but without losing the drinkability that marks the whole region. For a proper dinner, not a picnic!