Château du Moulin-à-Vent stands beside the stone windmill, built in 1550, that gave this corner of northern Beaujolais its name. Records of the estate go back to 1732, when it was known as Château des Thorins. It took its current name in 1936, the year Moulin-à-Vent was decreed one of France’s first AOCs. In 1911 the property sold for the first time in its recorded history, to Julien Damoy, who also grew grapes in Chambertin Clos de Bèze. His heirs held it until Jean-Jacques Parinet and his son Édouard bought it in 2009. Winemaker Brice Laffond joined them in 2013, and the Parinets then did three things. They replanted underperforming parcels from their own massal selection. They began farming organically that same year, with certification arriving in 2024.
They mapped roughly thirty hectares of old gamay vines into twenty-three distinct terroirs. The vines are planted at 10,000 or more per hectare, against an appellation minimum of 6,000. They average 27 hectoliters per hectare, less than half the legal limit. In the cellar, the grapes pass over two sorting tables and ferment with about a third whole clusters, one pump-over a day, and temperatures held below 77°F. There is no carbonic maceration and no added sulfur. The Wine Advocate’s David Schildknecht judged the estate’s holdings likely the finest set of parcels in the appellation, and Wine & Spirits named it one of the 100 best wineries in the world in 2017, 2020 and 2021. Its three single-vineyard wines, Champ de Cour, La Rochelle and Les Vérillats, all come from sites Moulin-à-Vent submitted for premier cru recognition in 2024.
Les Vérillats crowns an old granite mount at the top of the appellation: 4.41 hectares at around 300 meters, facing east into a wind corridor. The topsoil is barely half a meter of crumbly granite gorrhe over bedrock seamed with manganese and iron oxides. It is so thin that trellis stakes can’t always be driven all the way in. The 1874 Budker classification placed the site in the first class, and the vines here are now seventy years old. At the estate, 2021 was a late year, with spring frost and humidity cutting yields, but the granite brought the fruit to slow, full ripeness. Half the wine spent nine months in older French barrels while the other half stayed in steel. The whole cuvée then rested nine more months in stainless steel before bottling.
The 2021 opens with griotte cherry and raspberry, rose bud and violet, and blackberry beneath. This depth of dark fruit is unusual for the appellation. White peppercorn, aniseed and a flash of blood orange carry through a supple, concentrated palate. The chalky tannins stay firm and linger after the fruit fades. Drink through 2034.
