Moulin a Vent

An engaging light purple in colour, Merlin’s regular 2012 Moulin a Vent has a stylish, perfumed nose, more red fruit than pepper, with a vibrant crunchy texture to the palate. 
Jasper Morris MW - Wine Buyer

Clément, son of Louis Boillot and Ghislaine Barthod, is responsible for this super wine, made from the fruit of vines between fifty and sixty-years-old. Clément’s method is more Burgundian than Beaujolaise: the grapes are de-stemmed, and the wine matured in barrels (10% new). The ’15 is exceptionally concentrated, with aromas including black cherry and liquorice. The palate is surprisingly fresh – Louis remarked on its attractive côté vegetal when we tasted from barrel in the family’s cellars in Chambolle-Musigny.
A great example of serious, age-worthy Beaujolais, which will pinote (become Pinot-like) with time in bottle.
Will Heslop, Wine Buyer

Les Rouchaux is a single 1.5 ha plot at mid slope, close to the windmill itself, on sandy and alluvial soil with outcrops of blue granite manganese, with 70 year old vines.Deep black purple in colour, this displays a bundle of dark fruit energy, good acidity, a wine that really shows the terroir more than the Gamay grape.

WOW! Or should that be WAW (What A Wine!)? 2015 was lauded as a great vintage in Beaujolais, producing wines of tremendous concentration which, in most cases, will benefit from lengthy cellaring. Olivier’s superb La Rochelle is bound to age well – as it always does – but isn’t necessarily typical of the vintage: tasting this wine, finesse is the first descriptor that comes to mind, rather than concentration or power. It’s positively aérien, with red fruit and floral notes to the fore. Olivier has gradually reduced the amount of new oak on this cuvée, and that seems a wise decision.
La Rochelle is an extraordinary vineyard for numerous reasons. Its eighty-year old vines are planted at a density of 12,000 per hectare (10,000 gives one metre between each vine). The granite bedrock lies close enough to the surface to peak through in places. The consequences for us, the lucky drinkers, include a pronounced mineral character to wine. In a warm vintage like 2015, it renders La Rochelle reminiscent of something from the Northern Rhône – let’s not forget, Moulin à Vent is, geographically, much closer to Côte-Rôtie than the Côte d’Or.
In short, this is a cheerful, supremely enjoyable wine, with a rare degree of complexity and serious capacity to develop over the next decade and beyond.
Will Heslop, Buyer. Berry Bros. & Rudd

The 2013 Moulin-à-Vent Les Rouchaux spent 12 to 15 months in barrel. Compared to the 2013 La Roche, the fruit here is less broody and more open, some red cherries beginning to appear with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with a lightly spiced opening, chalky tannin, and a focused, intense finish that leaves boysenberry and citrus fruit on the aftertaste. This is an excellent, modern-style Moulin-à-Vent.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate - robertparker.com - Apr 2015

The 2013 Moulin-à-Vent Vieilles Vignes comes from 60- to 80-year-old vines. It has a very subtle and complex bouquet of blackberry, boysenberry and mineral scents that unfold in the glass.

The palate is medium-bodied with supple black fruit on the entry, but the back end exerts quite a grip. It does not quite have the panache of other vintages that I have tasted, but it is still an impressive Moulin-à-Vent that will repay those with the patience to cellar for several years.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate - robertparker.com - Apr 2015

Although from the same variety (100 percent Gamay), Thibault Ligier-Belair's concentrated, complex Beaujolais is poles apart from the bright and breezy nouveau style with which most drinkers are familiar. From eight parcels of vines of up to 95 years old, on the nose this shows an appealing hint of reduction which gives way to aromas of kirsch and dark berry fruit. The palate is characteristically mineral and tannic, and will benefit from decanting. Drink now to 2029.

Superb even purple colour. The nose begins discreetly but then begins to expand wonderfully, a lovely smooth rich fruit throughout, total harmony, very lovely long and fine. In recent vintages Olivier has pursued a lighter touch in extraction, allowing the fruit from ancient vines to be expressed more graciously.

The 2013 Moulin-à-Vent La Roche was tighter on the nose that the 2013 Vieilles Vignes, but I think ultimately it will have more fruit concentration with those powerful bilberry and boysenberry scents intact. The palate is medium-bodied with a saline entry, a light grip to the tannin and a chalky, rather stern finish. It needs to just lighten up a tad, but there is still great potential locked into Thibault Liger-Belair's Beaujolais.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate - robertparker.com - Dec 2015

Less “nervous” than on its release, but just as energetic, with lifted red berry and floral aromas, fresh acidity and chalky tannins which seem to channel the eponymous rock beneath Thibault’s vines – this parcel just beside the (also eponymous) windmill. There’s real weight of fruit on the palate, including darker berry flavours behind the initial surge of red. A hugely complex wine which will reward a decade’s cellaring.  
Will Heslop, Wine Buyer

A truly special cuvée, hence Thibault’s choice to release it only in magnum, les Vignes Centenaires hails from some of the oldest (a proportion planted in 1872) and best-sited vines in Beaujolais. In ’14, Thibault retained almost half the stems, and aged 40% of this cuvée in new wood, untoasted, to preserve the purity of fruit Thibault regards as one of its hallmarks, alongside extraordinary concentration and length. Best approached from 2019 onwards.
Will Heslop, Wine Buyer

Thibault has made this cuvée since the 2009 vintage, having identified the site as special and isolated it from the blended Vieilles Vignes wine. The vines are at the bottom of the hill, on quite deep soils with a mix of blue/pink sandy granite and silt. The result is a rounded and soft expression of Moulin-à-Vent, arguably the most approachable of the range. There is a spicy, peppery Syrah note to the nose, then a touch of black olive and rich, concentrated red-black fruit, with sophisticated, silky tannins on the palate. Drink 2020-2026.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

The excellence of Cru Beaujolais is something I have held dear for some time, but its ageing potential was first brought to my attention when I was served two Moulin-à-Vent wines from 1961 and 1962 produced by Camille Giroud. The freshness and complexity of these wines was simply astonishing and I have since made it something of a personal mission to return these great wines to their rightful place in the cellars and on the tables of the most discerning wine drinkers. The wines in our offer cover a range of styles; whole-bunch, de-stemmed, oaked, unoaked, elegant and floral, dense and structured. This almost endless variety and versatility is what is most fascinating about Gamay grown on Beaujolais’s volcanic soils. What the wines have in common, however, is that they all offer excellent value for money and great drinking pleasure.

The Vieilles Vignes is effectively Thibault’s Moulin-à- Vent business card, a blend of 10 parcels spread across seven hectares, with vines between 65 and 105 years of age. The 2016 vintage is the first for which he has used large foudres to raise the wine. There is a wonderful, old-vine intensity and concentration to this wine, great depth of flavour and power, but without reaching excess. The granite soil really comes through on the persistent, saline finish. Drink 2021-2029.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

The excellence of Cru Beaujolais is something I have held dear for some time, but its ageing potential was first brought to my attention when I was served two Moulin-à-Vent wines from 1961 and 1962 produced by Camille Giroud. The freshness and complexity of these wines was simply astonishing and I have since made it something of a personal mission to return these great wines to their rightful place in the cellars and on the tables of the most discerning wine drinkers. The wines in our offer cover a range of styles; whole-bunch, de-stemmed, oaked, unoaked, elegant and floral, dense and structured. This almost endless variety and versatility is what is most fascinating about Gamay grown on Beaujolais’s volcanic soils. What the wines have in common, however, is that they all offer excellent value for money and great drinking pleasure.

This vineyard is situated on the south side of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, on a terrace below a large amphitheatre. The name refers to the field ( champ) into which water runs (cours). When it rains heavily, the topsoil from the slope above is washed into this vineyard, leaving a fascinating mix of pink, blue and yellow granite soil around a metre deep. Thibault compares this to Chambolle-Musigny; soft on entry, but with a firm grip at the finish. Forty percent whole- cluster was used here, and 15 percent new oak. There is a touch of spice on the nose, along with both red and black fruit. There is a spicy aniseed profile, suave and supple fruit in the middle and a very granitic finish. Gorgeous. Drink 2021-2030.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer

The excellence of Cru Beaujolais is something I have held dear for some time, but its ageing potential was first brought to my attention when I was served two Moulin-à-Vent wines from 1961 and 1962 produced by Camille Giroud. The freshness and complexity of these wines was simply astonishing and I have since made it something of a personal mission to return these great wines to their rightful place in the cellars and on the tables of the most discerning wine drinkers. The wines in our offer cover a range of styles; whole-bunch, de-stemmed, oaked, unoaked, elegant and floral, dense and structured. This almost endless variety and versatility is what is most fascinating about Gamay grown on Beaujolais’s volcanic soils. What the wines have in common, however, is that they all offer excellent value for money and great drinking pleasure.