I picked this up for 16$ at K&L thinking that it would be fun to try another Cru Beaujolais after my delight in the 2009 Morgon that Costco has from Louis Tete (FYI, K&L has the same wine at 15$...it's 11$ at Costco.). There's something that I find quite compelling about these fleeting glimpses of Cru Beaujolais that I've had recently--I am a big fan of the stony, juicy, acid driven flavor profile, relatively low alcohol, and lighter body--and also quite enthralled with how well the wines go with food. I've bought three bottles of the Morgon at this point, which is basically unheard of for me. When it comes to wine, I definitely like an adventure. If I really like a bottle, I might by two of them, but that doesn't happen all that often. It is quite rare for me to three-peat. Cru Beaujolais is also a great demonstration to me about how my tastes have changed. I do not think that I would have been so enthused with these wines 3 years ago, but now, they make me a happy guy.
The Moulin-a-Vent is from a different vintage, so perhaps I should just throw all comparison to the Morgon out the window as it's really not particularly relevant--different village, different vintage, different terroir. (Actually, this brings up a question that I think is really interesting, which is, should you be comparing wines if they aren't apples to apples? How can you compare a Napa Cab with a Beaujolais anyways? It doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense when you really break it down. They're quite a bit different. And this is where I think that "point-driven" wine drinking fails--there's not much context. Different styles can be good in different ways, but to just dumb them down to a point score is asinine.) The Moulin-a-Vent worked great with what we had for dinner--some chicken thighs that I pan-roasted and then broiled with some parmigiano and tomato sauce on top (sort of a riff on chicken parmigiano, without the pasta), as well as a farro salad spiked with cucumbers, red wine vinegar, red onion, olives, and chile pepper. This Moulin-a-Vent had aromas of lightly candied cherry, plums, maybe just a touch of spice right when it was opened, and stones, before leading into tarter, more cranberry-like flavors on the palate. Juicy, lighter bodied, not particularly complex, and the finish isn't really a blockbuster, but it's definitely a great food wine. In particular, the wine showed its' versatility with the farro salad--fairly spicy, but the wine held up admirably. It also played well with the chicken, which was tomatoe-y--a tough match for many red wines if they don't have a lot of acids to back them up. All told, I enjoyed this wine, and think that it's a great wine to pick up to go with a wide-variety of things. It's also perfect for Spring, because it takes a chill, so it's a great pick if you don't want a rose or a white wine and want something that's lighter, but still somewhat substantial. B/B+
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