($100, Wilson Daniels): Yes, you read the price correctly — $100 for a bottle of Beaujolais.  But to associate this wine with conventional image of Beaujolais — a fruity easy-to-drink wine — would be a terrible mistake.  The wines from Moulin-à-Vent, though a village in the Beaujolais region, rightly stand apart from that region and carry their own appellation.  I’ve have bottles of Moulin-à-Vent from this property when it was known (under a previous owner) as Château des Thorins that had developed gloriously with two decades of bottle age.   Within the village of Moulin-à-Vent there are zones with distinct growing conditions, such as Le Champ de Cour, or this one, Clos des Londres, which produce distinctive and unique wines.  By focusing on these individual sites, Château du Moulin-à-Vent shows the mosaic of the area — a parcelization reminiscent of the Côte d’Or.  The 2009 Clos des Londres has impeccable balance, combining the density and concentration of the vintage with the minerality of the site.  Befitting a young wine with a great future, it has a marvelous firmness without being hard and a subtle black cherry-like bitterness in the finish.  The tannins are glossy, not astringent.  Clearly a wine for the cellar, it only slowly reveals its charms over a couple of hours in the glass.  Is it a great wine?  Yes.  Is it worth $100?  Only you and your banker can answer that.
95 Michael Apstein Sep 2, 2014