Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent Champ de Cour 2011

Professional Ratings

• 90 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent 2011 Moulin-a-Vent Champ de Cour projects effusively fruity boysenberry and black raspberry tinged with mint, nutmeg, cinnamon and caramelized resin. Expansive and softly textured on the palate, it picks up a slightly drying spot from wood tannin in its finish, although juiciness of ripe berries still comes through in an impressively sustained finish. Where, though, are the mineral, floral or carnal dimensions one anticipates from the best of Beaujolais and indeed finds alluringly manifested in so many of this wine’s stable mates? Perhaps they are simply covered over for now – or were when I tasted in December. The theory on which the team here has proceeded – if it can take more wood, then it needs more wood – is certainly a familiar one, but I remain skeptical in practice, even if I don’t doubt that this bottling will continue projecting sweet berry fruit at least through 2016. And as for the theory that a great, ageworthy wine needs time in bottle to properly express itself, the finest and most long-lived Beaujolais of my cellaring experience were mostly also compellingly delicious as youngsters too.
  Range: 89-90+
• 90 Wine & Spirits
  This estate owns close to eight acres in Champ de Cour, with a southeastern exposure on soils that contain more clay than other areas of Moulin-a-Vent. It is an austere wine in 2011, almost somber in the context of Beaujolais. The black, mineral-inflected tannins and firm acidity lend it structure, lifting the dark spice toward complexity. For braised meats.
• 90 Wine Enthusiast
  From a seven-acre parcel on the estate and produced from 35-year-old vines, this is a tannin-dominated wine. It is firm, with concentration that is just beginning to show the rich black-cherry fruits. Still developing, it needs to age, Drink from 2018.