Moulin-à-Vent Les Rouchaux
2015
Thibault Liger-Belair comes from a great winemaking family that has deep roots in Burgundy: he is a direct descendant of the Napoleonic General Louis Liger-Belair, who acquired the Chateau de Vosne in 1815 when he married Ludovie Marey, whose family had been Burgundy negociants since 1720. Youthful, passionate and always full of ideas, Thibault trained as an oenologist, but had his start in the wine industry as a wine buyer. He is also a former rugby player with a genuine 'down to earth'...
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The vines are 65 years old on average and planted on a soil of limestone, clay and blue granite. This parcel has an area of 2.5 Ha in the commune of Romanèche-Thorins, a locality called "Les Rouchaux".
The grapes are harvested by hand and they are using 40% whole cluster fermentation. There is a 3 week fermentation period with very moderate intervention. They are aging the wine in French oak barrels for 12-15 months. The wines are unfiltered and unfined.
This wine is beautiful example of a modern style Beaujolais. Dark berries, raspberries, peppery spice and minerality aromas. This wine is medium bodied with silky tannins and bright acidity.
Dark ruby. A powerful, highly perfumed bouquet evokes fresh dark berries, candied flowers and Asian spices, and a minerally nuance adds vivacity. Sweet, spicy and focused on the palate, offering juicy boysenberry and cherry compote flavors that spread out gracefully with aeration. Suave, seamless and powerful yet lithe, displaying excellent finishing clarity, subtle tannins and a whiplash of sweet blue fruit.
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Strong reduction flattens the nose. Otherwise there is good richness to the fleshy and relatively forward middle weight flavors that possess good punch and detail on the well-balanced finish.
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A notably ripe but fresh nose of pepper, floral hints and essence of earthy red berry fruit scents. There is excellent richness to the utterly delicious and seductively textured flavors that possess fine concentration on the balanced and persistent finish. Worth a look.
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There is a slightly leafy character to the earthy red and dark berry fruit aromas. The
middle weight flavors possess a lovely sense of energy and fine detail that continues onto the attractively textured, complex and relatively refined finale. This is really quite good and should drink well both young and fully mature.
Very dark crimson. Elegant, dark-red fruit. Attractively dusty sensation. Dry and a little more herbal. Tight and dry and zesty. Great finesse and upright, fine-boned structure. More austere than the Vieilles Vignes. Dry and a little bony on the palate. Rocky and dark, with a beautifully dry chalky texture. With time in the glass, it develops a fresh, slightly stemmy herbal character but not in the least underripe, almost minty. A complete baby. Later this went very well with the braised turbot and woodland mushrooms though still not giving its full aromatic potential.
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This is still a bit aromatically raw as there are residual fermentation aromas in evidence.
There is good verve, detail and concentration to the delicious and solidly complex middle weight flavors that possess lovely
balance and length. This is a relatively refined version of the appellation.
Plump, juicy and resonant in the glass, the 2012 Moulin-à-Vent Les Rouchaux stands out for its purity of fruit and open, supple personality. Dark red cherry and plum notes ring out in a beautifully expressive and generous Moulin a Vent with tons of near-term appeal.
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