2020 Château Moulin Saint-Georges, St Emilion, Bordeaux
Critics reviews
What amazing texture, creamy and yet tight, with waves of violet and peony aromatics, smoked sandalwood, incense, raspberry fruit, flaky pastry, damson fruits, vanilla bean and espresso, grips on with fine salt-tinged tannins. The blend had more Merlot than usual because the Cabernet Franc had more trouble in the heat. 3.5ph. 100% new oak, an upscale from En Primeur, but I also loved it; this is just the most wonderful estate, with clay-dominant soils that go down around 1.5m before hitting the limestone bedrock.
Drink 2026 - 2040
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (February 2023)
The 2020 Moulin Saint-Georges has perhaps the most precocity amongst Vauthier's portfolio this vintage with upfront, quite bold macerated black cherries, kirsch and touches of melted tar. It's the kind of nose that wants to be loved. The palate is very pliant on the entry, with fine tannins that frame a sweet core of black fruit, tapering slightly towards the finish. Modest grip, more impressive in terms of salinity rather than substance, it's a sure-footed Moulin-Saint-Georges.
Drink 2025 - 2040
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (February 2023)
The 2020 Moulin Saint-Georges is soft, fruity and easygoing, all of which make it a fine choice for drinking now and over the next handful of years. The blend is 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc, but even so, Moulin Saint-Georges is a wine of reserve and nuance. There’s terrific energy and vibrancy here. I would not be in any rush to open this. This gorgeous, under the radar Saint-Émilion is not at all showy, but it will appeal tremendously to readers who like firm, classically built wines. I can’t wait to see how it ages. This is a major Sleeper.
Drink 2028 - 2040
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (February 2023)
The 2020 Moulin St Georges is more marked by its élevage than its brilliant 2019 predecessor (a wine I purchased for my own cellar). Offering aromas of plums, cherries, and spices mingled with prominent notes of coconut and vanilla pod, it's medium to full-bodied, bright, and racy, reflecting its west-facing limestone terroir. It concludes with a saline, somewhat oak-inflected finish that is likely to become better integrated with a bit of bottle age.
Drink 2027 - 2050
William Kelley, Wine Advocate (April 2023)
Tasted blind
Black core. Quite reluctant on the nose, but some fresh and lightly leafy black fruit as it opens. More leafy on the palate, juicy, lighter-bodied than most and scented to the end. Some might find it on the lean side but I think it’s balanced. Juicy, perhaps slightly tart on the finish.
Drink 2028 - 2037
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (February 2024)
Very pure fruit with black currant, raspberry, orange peel and flower aromas and flavours. It’s medium- to full-bodied. Velvety tannins and a flavorful finish. Dark chocolate. Fresh acidity. Drinkable, but will age very, very well.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (March 2023)
Gorgeous black and blue fruits, graphite, tobacco, and violet notes emerge from the 2020 Château Moulin Saint Georges, a rich, full-bodied, beautifully balanced blend of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc. It's one of the standouts in the lineup, and while I'd happily drink a bottle today, it will benefit from just 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for two decades.
Drink 2025 - 2045
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (March 2023)
Very nice nose, dense, fragrant, raspberry-sweet, and lightly oak-vanillary; fullish, moderate in concentration (as usual), fresh to lively in acidity; a sweetly ripe fruit, gently fleshy in texture, subtly mineral, an almost lemony fresh definition, making this particularly attractive in the year where, even if fresh, so much is “supple”; a particularly good juicy core for Moulin St-Georges; long and even and classy, with lovely fruit-fragrant persistence. A typical refined, classic expression of good mid-rank St-Emilion. A great success.
Drink 2028 - 2045+
Michael Schuster, The World of Fine Wine (May 2021)
About this WINE
Chateau Moulin Saint-Georges
Château Moulin St Georges has been referred to as a junior version of Château Ausone as it is owned by the same proprietors, the Vauthier family. Its 17.3 acres of vineyards are located between those of Ausone and La Gaffelière and are well-sited on a south-west facing slope, known as the Pavie slope. The vineyards are planted with Merlot (66%), the rest (34%) Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The vines are expertly cultivated by Vauthier who firmly believes that a wine's quality is first and foremost a function of the vines and the fruit they bear. Consequently, yields are kept deliberately low and the grapes exclusively hand-harvested. Winemaking takes place in temperature-controlled, stainless steel tanks and the wine is then matured in 100% new oak barriques for 15-20 months. The wines are bottled unfiltered.
St Émilion
St Émilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank.
St Émilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel.
Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol. Atypically for St Émilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.
In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices. The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.
St Émilion was first officially classified in 1954, and is the most meritocratic classification system in Bordeaux, as it is regularly amended. The most recent revision of the classification was in 2012
Merlot
The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.
In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.
Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Merlot 85%; Cabernet Franc 15%.
We have not been able to taste this wine. Moulin Saint-Georges offers excellent value in Bordeaux. The vineyard sits at the bottom of the slope, which is home to Ch. Ausone: the Vauthier family owns and makes the wine at both properties. While Moulin Saint-Georges’ aspect is more westerly and flatter, the vineyard is still located on clay and limestone soils. These are well-tuned wines that will age beautifully over a decade, with the thumbprint of Ausone.
Berry Bros. & Rudd
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