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2018 Moulin-à-Vent “Vieilles Vignes”
Domaine DiochonCompared to the norm these days, with vignerons bottling increasingly wider ranges of cuvées, Domaine Diochon has become an outlier by producing only one bottling each year. This wine happens to be the same cuvée we have imported for nearly forty years: the old-vine Moulin-à-Vent. Today, the wine is made from vines planted in 1920, 1950, and the 1960s, and it remains as true as ever to the Diochon style: wines defined by well-integrated tannins but without heaviness, lifted by fragrant fruit and floral aromas. Soulful and savory, with notes of cherries, iron, and smoke, this gorgeous cru Beaujolais is ready to drink now and also built to last.
—Tom Wolf
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2018 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Gamay |
Appellation: | Moulin-à-Vent |
Country: | France |
Region: | Beaujolais |
Producer: | Domaine Diochon |
Winemaker: | Thomas Patenôtre |
Vineyard: | 50 - 85 years, 5.05 ha |
Soil: | Pink Granite, sandstone, with a manganese-rich sub-soil |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 13% |
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About The Producer
Domaine Diochon
About The Region
Beaujolais
After years of the region’s reputation being co-opted by mass-produced Beaujolais Nouveau and the prevalence of industrial farming, the fortunes of vignerons from the Beaujolais have been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Much of this change is due to Jules Chauvet, a prominent Beaujolais producer who Kermit worked with in the 1980s and arguably the father of the natural wine movement, who advocated not using herbicides or pesticides in vineyards, not chaptalizing, fermenting with ambient yeasts, and vinifying without SO2. Chief among Chauvet’s followers was Marcel Lapierre and his three friends, Jean Foillard, Guy Breton, and Jean-Paul Thévenet—a group of Morgon producers who Kermit dubbed “the Gang of Four.” The espousal of Chauvet’s methods led to a dramatic change in quality of wines from Beaujolais and with that an increased interest and appreciation for the AOC crus, Villages, and regular Beaujolais bottlings.
The crus of Beaujolais are interpreted through the Gamay grape and each illuminate the variety of great terroirs available in the region. Distinguishing itself from the clay and limestone of Burgundy, Beaujolais soils are predominantly decomposed granite, with pockets of blue volcanic rock. The primary vinification method is carbonic maceration, where grapes are not crushed, but instead whole clusters are placed in a tank, thus allowing fermentation to take place inside each grape berry.
Much like the easy-going and friendly nature of many Beaujolais vignerons, the wines too have a lively and easy-drinking spirit. They are versatile at table but make particularly good matches with the local pork sausages and charcuterie. Though often considered a wine that must be drunk young, many of the top crus offer great aging potential.
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch