Beaujolais: top-scoring Moulin-à-Vent 2018 wines

See the full Beaujolais 2018 cru vintage report

Individual cru analysis and top-scoring wines for:

Morgon| Fleurie | Brouilly & Côte de Brouilly | Saint Amour, Regnie, Julienas and Chenas

Moulin-à-Vent 2018

Looking at the 2018 vintage in Beaujolais there is plenty to celebrate with many of the region’s crus producing outstanding wines after a hot, dry growing season.

Morgon and Moulin-à-Vent confirmed their claim as the leading crus in terms of terroir character and age-worthiness.

Many of the wines from Moulin-à-Vent demonstrated a much ‘glossier’ and supple character with less of the grippy, tannic and rustic edges seen in earlier years.

Moulin-à-Vent – named after the local windmill – is situated in the north of the Beaujolais region and one of the most famous crus. Vineyards span both the Rhône and Saône-et-Loire departments covering 611ha with the best sites positioned on the south and southeast-facing slopes of the Beaujolais hillsides at elevations of 200-300m.

Considered the longest-living, sturdiest and most tannic of the cru, Moulin-à-Vent is never going to tannic in the same way as red Bordeaux or Chianti. With vineyards on crumbly pink granite soils and varied seams of manganese and quartz, Moulin-à-Vent can be laden with violet and dark-cherry notes when youthful, gaining iris and spice notes as it ages, before developing gamey, musky notes with longer maturation.

Top producers include:

• Chateau des Jacques
• Chateau du Moulin-a-Vent
• Thibault Liger-Belair
• Domaine Labruyère

See Andy Howard MW’s top Moulin-à-Vent 2018 wines

You may also

Walls: Why Syrah is the most adaptable grape in the worldRosso di Montalcino: Brunello’s charming little brotherAnson: Petrus 2000 in space – how it tastes now