2009 Moulin a Vent Vieilles Vignes
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Tasting notes
Much more mature colour than the 2010, with a red-brick rim. Sweet fruited and a little more meaty than the 2010. Slight prickle on the palate – still has some dissolved CO2 that would probably have disappeared if the wine had been double decanted. Not a fault but you'd need to know. Very ripe flavours of dried fruit but also a more aggressive tannin note. Not as well balanced as the 2010. Chewy finish. The second bottle tasted later was better but still a little too sweet-tasting for me, and a touch meaty. (JH)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
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To an even greater extent than its Rouchaux counterpart, Liger-Belair’s 2009 Moulin-a-Vent Vieilles Vignes has gained in bottle, taking on bittersweet floral notes and a game-like aspect whose conjunction puts me in mind of the Northern Rhone, while giving up none of the palate-staining intensity of ripe dark berries, toasted nuts, chocolate, and crushed stone on which I elaborated in my issue 190 barrel-tasting note. The strong sense of tart vivacity and invigorating salinity have not diminished in bottle either, and there is almost a tactile sense of crunching down on blackberry seeds in the course of this beauty’s long finish. The blending machinations employed here (described in issue 190) certainly succeeded! Expect 6-8 years of fascination, if not more. In the second vintage of his Beaujolais project – for more about which (including vineyard descriptions), consult my report in issue 190 – Thibault Liger-Belair has had an opportunity to show what he and his vines can do when faced with a bit of adversity, although given this young vigneron’s track record with Burgundian Pinot, I would certainly have been shocked if he had dropped the ball. Picking began less than a week later in 2010 than in 2009, and bottling was likely to again take place in August. (I tasted the definitive assemblages.) Since the 2009s from this estate were so auspicious – and are indeed in another league from the excellent 2010s – I have taken the liberty of offering tasting notes from bottle despite having published notes from cask in issue 190. Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802
Thibault, installed in Nuits St Georges since 2002, finished his wine studies at the Lycee Bel-Air near Belleville a few years earlier. He gained a great enthusiasm for the Beaujolais while he was there, especially the wines of Moulin à Vent. 2009 is the first vintage of a newly acquired property of 3.2 ha. Three wines will be bottled: Les Ruchaux, a vieilles vignes blend (60 years+) and La Roche, a classic terroir with hardly any topsoil and 80-year-old vines, almost next door to Olivier Merlin’s La Rochelle. Cask sample. Lovely suppleness. So glorious! (JR)