Workers prune the vineyard at Château du Moulin-à-Vent. Wine lovers are embracing the serious wines of Beaujolais made by talented producers working in specific appellations such as Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon or Fleurie.Supplied
The grapevines that dominate the landscape surrounding the village of Romanèche-Thorins in the Beaujolais region are in bloom. In the coming days, barring ill effects from the elements, delicate grape flowers will form small green berries that eventually mature into individual grapes.
Once the grape clusters are set, winemakers working here in the heart of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation can estimate their crop levels and the timing of harvest – 90 to 100 days from now if the unseasonably cool conditions this Spring give way to a sunny and warm summer. They need to advise the labourers that harvest juicy bunches of gamay grapes when they can expect to start work.
There’s always a mix of hope and fear at this critical junction, but the stakes are higher this year. The 2024 vintage marks the 100th anniversary of the appellation and, perhaps more importantly, there’s growing affection for the wines made from the old vines on the slopes near the windmill that gives the region its name. A healthy and ripe crop couldn’t come at a better time.
For decades, Beaujolais has been defined by cheap and cheerful red wines, notably light-bodied and fruity Beaujolais Nouveau marketed with great success by Georges Duboeuf. (Duboeuf produces almost half the volume of the region’s wines. Thirty per cent of its production is Beaujolais Nouveau and Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau.)
But wine lovers are embracing the serious wines of Beaujolais, bottles of red made by talented producers working in specific appellations, crus such as Moulin-à-Vent, Morgon or Fleurie. These are fuller bodied, potentially age-worthy, wines that retain the pleasing fruity character of the gamay grape with more concentration and complexity.
Wineries in Moulin-à-Vent are working to reposition themselves among the world’s greatest wines. In the 1920s and 30s, wine lists at the top restaurants in France would list Moulin-à-Vent alongside Clos Vougeot, Hermitage and first growths from Bordeaux.
The 1950s saw a shift away from traditional fermentation techniques to carbonic maceration, which results in a simple, fruity style red of Beaujolais for early drinking.
As part of its rehabilitation efforts, the Moulin-à-Vent producers’ organization has put forward a list of fourteen vineyard parcels to be recognized as Premier Crus. Each comes with a resume and reputation, having a proven track record over decades and passed a rigorous series of blind tastings outlined in the application to the National Institute for Origin and Quality.
The hope is that having the quality of these superior sites certified by a third party will help elevate the pedigree of those specific plots and underscore overarching ambition of the region.