2011 Jules Desjourneys Moulin-à-Vent Les Michelons

The 2011 Fabien Duperray Moulin-a-Vent Les Michelons Vieilles Vignes comes from Fabien’s 1.9 hectares on granitic sand, from 50- and 90-year-old vines. It was cropped 25.7 hectoliters per hectare. It has a super-concentrated bouquet of macerated dark cherries and maraschino, hints of marmalade, creme de cassis, and a sprinkle of cloves. The palate is medium-bodied with very ripe, demonstrative tannins. This is a more structured Moulin-a-Vent compared to the regular bottling, certainly with impressive grip, yet maintaining freshness and composure all the way to its end. Drink 2019-2028+. David Schildknecht has rhapsodized over Fabien Duperrey’s wines at Domaine Jules Desjourneys in his previous Beaujolais reports, therefore it was imperative to drive to his winery, tucked down a quiet side road in the village of “La Chapelle de Guinchay,” just south of Macon. I rang the doorbell, heard a couple of dogs barking, and then Fabien opened the door. Fabien has spent many years as a distributor of some of Burgundy’s finest wines, testified by the empties of DRC that I spied on the shelf. And I suspect that dealing with such luminaries has instilled a sense of pride and ambition in Fabien himself. He is forthright in his opinions, dismissive of many practices of his peers, and clearly seeks to distinguish his own wines from the rest in Beaujolais. And that is not difficult to do once you taste their wines. Insert these into a blind tasting and it is not difficult to pick them out. Fabien picks at super-low yields from vines between 65 and 140-years old, zoning in on its most propitious parcels and farmed biodynamically (certified organic). These will soon include a pocket of Morgon Corcelette that lies adjacent to Daniel Bouland’s. Apparently he has disowned a tractor, because the vineyard husbandry is entirely by hand. Fabien picks notoriously late, though he is not dogmatic about it, picking early apropos the 2008 vintage. After rigorous sorting, the whole clusters are trodden a pieds and fermented in concrete tanks, then undergo an extended elevage up to about 36 months. (The 2012s that I tasted will be bottled this coming August.) These are wines built for age. When I asked Fabien what I should be drinking now, he told me that his 2007s are just about to come around. For this tasting, I focused on the 2011s David reviewed from barrel which were bottled August 2013. Fabien’s wines are impressive, Beaujolais’ own sui generis. I tasted nothing remotely like them among the hundreds that I encountered during my stay in the region, though given his tenets, I guess I knew what to expect. These are unquestionably the most intense wines you will find in Beaujolais: sumptuous wines that manage to retain sufficient freshness, when I can imagine others might end up with something more cloying and over-egged. In their youth, there are marked by their satin-like textures and certainly err much more toward the Cote de Nuits than Beaujolais. One can argue that the Fabien’s exacting standards override the terroir expression and regional typicite. I found myself wanting to warm to their personalities more. I could see the care that goes into these wines, but perhaps it masks their soul unlike, say, Jean Foillard, Marcel Lapierre or Julien Sunier. The more pertinent question is how will they age? I can foresee a 10-year-on tasting where that glossy veneer is abraded by time to reveal quite extraordinary wines but let’s not beat around the bush, you will have to pay some serious cash for the privilege. Importer: Nina Scherotter (DNS Wines) and Thomas Calder (Paris).