2010 Jules Desjourneys Moulin-à-Vent Les Michelons

When most recently tasted last December, the Desjourneys 2010 Moulin-a-Vent Les Michelons Vieilles Vignes outdid the already high expectations I expressed in Issue 196, but I leave it to readers to consult my previous review for additional sensory details. I’ll confine myself now to the observation that stoniness and peat-like smokiness have strikingly added to the complexity on display here, the latter to the point where you can imagine a bit of malt whiskey (without its alcohol) having been mingled with the seamlessly ripe, yet freshly concentrated dark berry and plum fruit. Plan to follow this at least through 2020. (The Desjourneys “regular” Moulin-a-Vent, tasted alongside, performed in accordance with the upper bound of my Issue 196 point spread.) Readers who have read my, at-times, breathlessly enthusiastic notes in Issues 190 and 196 on my memorable tastings with Fabien Duperray will be delighted to learn that he is expanding to incorporate inter alia, beginning from 2012, ancient vines in appellation Chenas as well as next to Daniel Bouland’s in Morgon’s Corcelette. Moreover, a wide range of bottled wines were approved for appellation controlee and are finally coming to market; and Duperray has selected a U.S. agent. I know of no more exciting Beaujolais wines than these, and subscribers must seek them out in order to learn what is possible from the old vines and top sites of this region, even if some of you might decide that these are too high-toned and rich for your taste in Gamay. For much more about the remarkable Domaine Jules Desjourneys, its old vines, vinificatory approach, singularly long elevage,; and travails, I urge readers to consult those two previous reports from Issue 190 and 196. The evolution of the methods I described in those earlier reports on this domaine has tended toward an ever-gentler mere mingling of skins and juice. Up to a bit more than half of the demi-muids in which Duperray raises his wines are new (though they never display overt woodiness) and he is very concerned to achieve an ideal measure of oxygenation so as to ward off excessive reduction and insure longevity in bottle. That said, he is experimenting with maturing his 2012 Chapelle des Bois entirely in tank. Duperray is convinced that 2011 – when he harvested from August 27 through September 9, very early by his standards – is “a greater vintage than 2010 or 2009,” albeit one whose potential he intimates that few if any other vignerons, at least in Fleurie and Moulin-a-Vent, realized! Of course, anybody willing to tolerate extremely low yields; to risk very long elevage; and to mobilize as many as 27 pickers (who on some recent occasions took a day to harvest just half a hectare) is apt to achieve results unlike nearly any others in Beaujolais. The 2010s about which I raved in Issue 196 and again here were bottled last September, and Desjourneys plans to follow the same timetable with his 2011s, which are extraordinary in nearly every respect – especially for sheer ripeness and richness but also textural refinement – even if they did not yet completely convince me of their author’s claim that they surpass, or will surpass, his 2010s. Time will tell, though, and as my notes in this report on 2010s testify, I found that my exalted expectations for them from barrel were significantly exceeded in bottle. Production levels for Desjourneys wines are by no means infinitesimal, ranging from 1,500-7,500 bottles per cuvee, plus 500-1,000 magnums each (which gives you a vivid indication of what their author thinks about their aging potential). Duperray is mindful of the over-use and abuse of “Vieilles Vignes” by French growers and seems inclined now to react by deleting them. But note that there is only a single bottling from each of his sites, so don’t let the possible absence of reference to vine age on their eventual labels confuse you. A Thomas Calder Selection (various importers), Paris; fax 011-33-1-46-45-15-29