Classy producers from top terroirs

Moulin-à-Vent is one of the best wine villages in central France. It combines a perfect match of Gamay grape with granite terroir. Soil on these hills is minimal, with the vines often rooting directly into the bedrock. It is warm, but the windmills are here for a reason and the almost constant breeze keeps vineyards free from rot and the fruit cool during the long sunny days. Though Philip the Bold banned Gamay from the Duchy of Burgundy in 1492, it reigns unopposed here; no other variety suits the conditions so beautifully.

At both our featured domaines, wine making is traditional, not quasi-industrial carbonic maceration. The fruit is allowed proper contact with the fermenting juice and the resulting wines are structured as well as showing their fruit. We are showing a couple of 2010s on this afternoon's tasting and offering two of the 2011 single plot wines. 2011 is fleshier than 2010, but still structured and the wines deserve ageing to show their full potential. At Chateau Moulin-à-Vent Edouard Parinet has a sheltered vineyard and Le Champ de Cour is a creamy wine, typical of the alluvial soil (yes, there is some here). Its freshness emanates from the saline mineral content, rather than any obvious acidity. It has a long graphite finish and wants ageing. On this site the sun sets early, avoiding the possibility of sunburn from the powerful evening rays.

Thibault Liger-Belair's La Roche is higher up the hill, much more exposed and more structured, but it still displays that joyful Gamay character. Here, there really is no soil and tiny grapes grow on the ancient vines, some of them pre-phylloxera. La Roche has real attack and presence in the mouth and the finish goes on for ages.

We are also showing a brace of 2013 wines from Francois Lumpp to support our recent offer of the 2014s. /CW

Offered subject to remaining unsold for shipment late spring 2016