Color / Grapes
Red/Gamay
Region
Beaujolais
Appellation
Moulin à Vent "La Roche"
Features
As "la Roche" means, this vineyard is situated under the windmill (Moulin-A-Vent) on the mother rock old of 320 million years Only the Gamay grape is able to prosper on such soils almost without any water reserve throughout the year.
Vinification
Picked and sorted by hand, then often de-stemmed, the grapes macerate slowly over the course of three to four weeks. Both pigeage and pumping over takes place during fermentation depending on the vintage.
Winemaking and bottling
The wines are aged in our historic cellar for 10 months, a period spent in oak barrels, partly new and partly one, two and three vinages old.. The oak used to make the barrels comes from the French forests of Allier, Limousin and Nivernais.
Tasting / Food pairing
La Roche is a wine of great tension, with lots of minerality and precision. It is very linear in style, a characteristic that makes it a particularly apt match for complex and refined dishes.
Preservation
The wine needs two or three years to reach its harmony, and can then age comfortably for several decades. Vintages such as 2009, 2005, 1999 1985, 1976 are just delicious today.
Vintage
"At last a good-freezing winter that will give a good rest to our vines" were we thinking in January 2024 as snow was covering the vines. Hallas, mild temperatures appeared right at the beginning of February, getting the vegetative cycle started very early on. First buds were out by the end of March. April was sunny, May saw temperatures breaking all records (35°!) and water was scarce. Flowers spread their scents at the end of May. Thankfully, at last, June brought a few rains and thunderstorms helping grapes to develop. But these days, the price to pay for a bit of water is high. On the 24th and 25th of June some plots of Corcelette in Morgon, and Fleurie, was hit by hail. July came with incredibly high temperatures and sunshine, and, for the first time ever, we have seen grapes changing colours as early as the first week of July. August was as dry and hot, and not a cloud on the horizon. We started the harvest on Grand Carquelin plot in Moulin-à-Vent on the 19th of August. Like 2020, the vintage 2022 that we are now tasting, shows incredibly no signs of the turmoil and heat-waves of the year, and together with the dense colour and intensity, these wines are still fresh and elegant.