Moulin a Vent

From a yield of just 22 hl/ha, Olivier Merlin has produced a beautiful wine from the 75 year old vines in the La Rochelle vineyard. It displays a beautiful,pure, purple colour with a heavenly, heady nose, with a gorgeous strawberry and red fruit perfume. On the palate there are some peppery notes as well, with a fine structure to confirm long term ageing potential. 
Jasper Morris MW - Wine Buyer

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

Rich dark purple, previewing the opulent bouquet which includes some slightly chocolatey notes along with some mulberry fruit, before a crunchy mineral finish. Good weight and length.

Olivier was like a cat with two tails when he was able to buy this superb plot of vines, planted in 1937 on one of Moulin à Vent’s top terroirs. Olivier’s vinification delivers wines without the deepest colour but with exceptional depth of flavour and amazing persistence. This will reveal multiple layers with maturity.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer).

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

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.

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. A concentrated wine from a very small crop here too, just 16 hl/ ha of very healthy fruit. Jet 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.

Brilliant purple in colour, Thibault’s La Roche cuvee from an exceptional site has an incredibly vigorous nose, austere but fabulously concentrated, really fine and persistent. This wine has great keeping potential.