Color / Grapes
Red/Gamay
Region
Beaujolais
Appellation
Moulin à Vent "La Rochelle"
Features
Halfway between Carquelin and Rochegrès, this south-facing lieu-dit offers gamay vines a deeper, more weathered layers of granite and a sandier soil than either of its neighbors. This parcel is usually one of the first to be harvested as reaching ideal levels of ripeness. Even in cooler vintages, it reliably produces fleshy and generous wines with structure and colour suitable for long ageing. La Rochelle comes from latin "rupes": rock, and the diminutive "ella": small. This terroir was named "rupella" by the romans settling there to describe this small hill of granite slightly above the surrounding slopes. Under Burgundian invaders, the name then became roccella, and eventually "Rochelle".
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 take sometimes place according to the vintage profile.
Winemaking and bottling
The wines are aged in our historic cellar for 10 months, a period spent in new oak barrels and in one and two vintages old barrels. The oak used to make the barrels comes from the French forests of Allier, Limousin and Nivernais.
Tasting / Food pairing
"La Rochelle" always has a particular richness and concentration, regardless of the vintage. Even though its richness and concentration are remarkable , this wine still shows a typically Burgundian elegance thanks to its elegant tannins.
Preservation
The wine needs two or three years to reach its harmony, and can then age comfortably for several decades.
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.