Alain Coudert's "Clos de la Roilette" Fleurie and Moulin-a-Vent 2022/2023!
Alain Coudert's "Clos de la Roilette" Fleurie and Fleurie "Cuvée Tardive" have been great favorites of ours since the late 1980's when we purchased from Alain's jovial father Fernand. The 2023s have just arrived and yes, it was another hot, dry summer in the Beaujolais, but with just enough rain in July and August to produce wines that are ripe, dense and full-bodied with spice, earth and mineral notes and good acidity. It's another outstanding vintage for Alain, whose primary terroir, on the border with Moulin-a-Vent yields beautiful age-worthy wines that can also be enjoyed immensely in their full-bodied youth!
Fernand Coudert
Since taking over the estate from his father in 1991, Alain Coudert has become one of the most consistent and respected producers in Beaujolais. Alain was a reluctant vigneron, returning to aid the family after his brother had a serious accident in 1979. During our early visits to the estate, the modest Alain would defer to his father who would hold court at the long bar as old bottles were brought up from the cellar. Located near the border with Moulin-a-Vent and having a large percentage of clay with manganese in the soil, the wines here are quite structured for a Fleurie and even poor vintages will show well with ten years of age. "Vinification is the traditional, semi-carbonic Beaujolais style," says Alain. "We do a submerged cap, we do temperature control and we use native yeasts. The idea is obviously to best express our terroir...the result is a more structured wine, somewhere between a "typical" Fleurie and a Moulin-a-Vent. Cuvée Tardive is made from 80 year-old vines and can seriously age - in a way it's to prove that Gamay is a grape that can achieve more than youthful drinkability." The estate makes superb wines in vintages like 2022 and 2023, with firm earthy acidity and good brightness balancing the ripe fruit. Both wines are highly recommended. The "Clos de la Roilette" for current drinking and 5 to 8 years of cellaring, and the "Tardive" for great enjoyment over the next ten to twenty years.
And now there is a Moulin a Vent by Alain! - From newly acquired estate vines comes this first vintage of the Couderts' new Moulin-à-Vent. Vinification is identical to that for Roilette Fleurie wines: a traditional, semi-carbonic Beaujolais style. The whole clusters are harvested by hand and fermented spontaneously with native yeasts in open-top concrete tank. Maceration lasts around 14 days with a submerged cap rather than punchdowns. Sulfur use is quite minimal. The wine is aged in large, old oak foudres for about 9 months before bottling. This is for the cellar! (And there are a few bottles available of the 2022 Fleurie "Griffe du Marquis.")
This is a pre-arrival offer - wines arrive in late August, and all wines discount 10% on a case or mixed case purchase.
