2020 Château du Moulin-à-Vent , Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais, France
ABOUT THE WINE
This flagship wine is produced from selections of the harvest from three top terroirs of Moulin-à-Vent, all located near the fifteenth-century windmill at the heart of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. The altitude is between 240-280 meters (787-918 feet) with a predominantly southeastern exposure. “Les Thorins,” iconic and central terroir of the appellation, facing South. “Le Moulin-à-Vent” iconic and central terroir of the appellation, facing East. “Aux Caves,” soils rich with silica, with 80-year-old vines
Organic cultivation without official certification; natural soil amendments; manual weed control, integrated pest management; goblet pruning and trellising.
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Château du Moulin-à-Vent, the estate at the heart of the eponymous Beaujolais cru, has come a very long way in the decade since it was acquired by the Parinet family, says Sarah Marsh MW.
"I don’t want to make fine wine,” says Edouard Parinet. “Our chance in Moulin-à-Vent is to make wine that is good at all times.” Of course, fine wine can be accessible in youth, but we know what he means. Château du Moulin-à-Vent produces the eponymous Beaujolais cru, and as such, Edouard Parinet confronts preconceptions of wine that can be austere in youth, with a tannic structure that may take some years to mellow.
Nevertheless, this was the profile of wine that had attracted Jean-Jacques Parinet to buy the château in the late noughties after making his fortune in software. Edouard explained that his father, who was a child of the ’50s, considered Moulin-à-Vent a “serious, classy wine” that he would often serve at Sunday lunch. It was Jean-Jacques Parinet’s love of gastronomy, together with his son’s interest in wine, that led to the vinous investment. Without the latter, Jean-Jacques may have invested in another branch of gastronomy, and the rest would not be history.
Their first vintage was 2009, and since then father and son have made considerable changes at the estate. With the release of the 2019 vintage, they decided to mark the occasion with a ten-year vertical of the flagship blend at Cabotte in London to illustrate how the estate has evolved over the past decade.