Chateau du Moulin-A-Vent Champ de Cour

A handsome, deep red color with purple tints and lovely aromas, with perfectly mature red and black fruit, hints of spice and floral notes of rose, peony and violet. Good body with fine tannins and good length. Rich, opulent and complex, finishing on a spicy note.

2019

Burghound 90: This is also exceptionally pretty and perfumed with its array of essence of red gamay fruit plus similar suggestions of earth, spice and a floral top note. The delicious, reasonably vibrant and nicely textured lighter weight flavors possess a relatively refined mid-palate mouthfeel, all wrapped in balanced and ever-so-mildly rustic finale. This isn't particularly powerful or dense yet offers very solid depth and length. I would add that this is not really in the character of a classic MAV with its robust and overtly powerful style; by contrast, this is on the refined side.

Wine Spectator 92: There's beautiful fruit purity to the ripe cherry, wild strawberry and raspberry flavors, matched by salty, savory energy from pronounced white pepper, red tea and charred iron. Fine-grained tannins provide a gentle frame for this graceful and immensely drinkable red.

2020

Burghound 93: This is more floral still with a more elegant, cooler and airier combination of essence of red cherry, dark raspberry and a whiff of exotic tea. The utterly delicious and wonderfully vibrant if only moderately concentrated medium weight flavors possess a finer mouthfeel before terminating in a dusty, focused, powerful and strikingly long finale. Like the Couvent des Thorins, this beauty won't wow you with its size, weight or density but the overall package is lovely. I would add that while this could reasonable be approached after 5 or so years, the capacity to age for a decade plus is certainly present.

Decanter 93: A bold and powerful Moulin-à-Vent with spicy, ripe black cherry, wild bramble and smoky aromas. Deep, plush, defined dark fruit on the palate with firm tannins that grip, yet balanced with a refreshing, juicy quality. Finishes with a stony, savoury, earthy intensity. From 35-year-old vines grown at the foot of the famous windmill on granite soils. Hand-harvested grapes underwent a pre-fermentation cold soak, and it was then aged 30% in French oak barrels.

Wine Spectator 92: Stands out for its fruit purity, with red cherry, potpourri and pepper-dusted plum beefed up by dried herbs and toasted alder base notes. Silky in texture, with a savory beam of acidity driving balance and length.