2010 Moulin a Vent Clos de Rochegres, Ch des Jacques

A 2010 Moulin-a-Vent Clos de Rochegres originates in the high-elevation site that is by de Castelnau’s account farthest advanced in Chateau des Jacques’s conversion to biodynamic farming, thanks he says to the diligent collaboration of those participating vignerons who are responsible for day-to-day work in these particular vines. Decidedly the most carnal wine in its collection, this emphasizes both smoked and fresh red meats and displays a sappy sense of extract-richness even though tart black fruits are not to the fore. Saliva-inducing salinity, tincture of iodine, and what I can only describe – even if this is merely from power-of-suggestion – as iron filings introduce dynamic and depth to a sustained finish. This finely-tannic, energetic though hardly effusive Moulin-a-Vent should benefit from a couple of years in bottle and merit attention for six or more. (The fruit intensity and surf-and-turf depth vibrantly displayed today by the 2009 Rochegres easily merit my highest issue 190 expectations and confirm that wine as among the prime candidates for wine-of-the-vintage.) ||Jadot technical director, Jacques Lardiere, and Chateau des Jacques director, Guillaume de Castelnau, – for more about whose distinctive aspirations and methodology as well as about this estate’s vineyard sites consult my reports in issues 184 and 190 – did not compromise in 2010 on their intentions of rendering vins de garde by means of, among other things, extended elevage in largely new barrique. What’s more, they are among numerous Beaujolais producers to have favored pigeage (punch-downs) as a means of extraction in 2010 after having relied primarily on gentler remontage (pump-overs) in 2009. As my parenthetic remarks following each corresponding 2010 tasting note below reveal, the 2009s about which I waxed enthusiastic in issue 190 have with two exceptions fulfilled or exceeded my earlier assessments of their promise – in one case to such an extent that a completely new tasting note was warranted – and wine lovers should be scouring the market to acquire these gems. As usual, none of the latest crop of reds had yet been bottled when I visited in June, and final decisions had not been taken as to the assemblage for the two bottlings that are not vineyard-designated. I have elected to publish notes on the approximations that I tasted because to leave-out precisely the two wines that collectively represent the vast majority of Chateau des Jacques production would strike readers as odd and leave them unaided. (Naturally, the ultimate choice of barrels for the two grand assemblages impacts what is eventually bottled from each single vineyard, but largely in terms of quantity rather than quality, since from any given site, barrel-to-barrel deviance is small compared to that between sites.)||Imported by Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel. (212) 490 9300 Wine Advocate.August, 2011