2021 Domaine Anita, Moulin á Vent, Tres Vieille Vigne “Les Caves” Cru Beaujolais, France.
This grainy tannic, old school, chewy and deep garnet Moulin à Vent Cru Beaujolais reminds me of some of my first experiences with Gamay, like Domaine Diochon, with dark fruits and a slightly rustic character in glass. There’s an old fashion feel and subtle aromatics, quite different than the expressive modern Beaujolais with their whole cluster and fruit forward style, showing grippy layers of blackberry, currant, plum and cherry fruits on the medium bodied palate, along with some walnut husk, baking spices, some herbal notes, a bit of mineral and an earthy element. This Tres Vieille Vigne “Les Caves” saw Anita’s usual a native yeast fermentation, after a cool maceration in cement with a combination of whole clusters, with some stem inclusion, but mostly de-stemmed berries. After the fermentation, this wine was raised for about 11 months in oak barrels. Up against some other Gamay wines, this wine seemed quite austere, but still wonderfully drinkable and pleasing for the style here, which most likely comes from the vintage itself, which wasn’t ideal for generosity and or depth in parts of the Beaujolais region. Some of my reservations for Domaine Anita’s wines is my own personal preference or tastes that leans towards the full whole cluster style, with Lapierre and Foillard always a bit more appealing to me, even though Anita’s 2022s really impressed me, especially her 2022 Moulin à Vent “Cœur de Vigneronne”.
The Domaine Anita label, led by Anita Neveu, as mentioned in my prior reviews, a former professional cyclist-turned winemaker who is a quickly rising in Beaujolais, has put out a set of delicious wines from 2021 and 2022, which I have been enjoying haphazardly over the last couple of years. Anita (Kuhnel) Neveu, at Domaine Anita, as noted in previous reviews, is based in Chénas, she does mainly cru bottlings from Moulin à Vent, as seen here, but also has this plot of old vines in Morgon, which maybe get the most attention, a plot in Fleurie and another in Chénas. Importer Neal Rosenthal says Anita’s goal from the outset was to produce wines of minimal intervention that express site character with maximal clarity. Her Gamay vines range from 40 to 100 years old, with incredible density, low yields and offer tons of mature terroir nuances. All of which are sustainably farmed, they feature in her lineup of lush Gamay offerings, and are from vines that range from 40 to 100 years old on mainly the classic granite based soils here. Importer, Neal Rosenthal says that Anita is assisted in making the wines by Guy Marion, who he adds, oversaw no fewer than 52 harvests as cellarmaster for Georges Duboeuf, so there is solid foundation of experience, along with youthful passion to play off of here. Anita has a collection of small concrete vats to ferment each parcel separately and that she uses a different percentage of whole cluster in each wine, as noted above, and she uses ex-Burgundy barrels to age the Cru bottlings like this one. A range of styles, and Domaine Anita make for lots of great choices in Beaujolais and I recommend the latest from Domaine Anita.
($40 Est.) 90 Points, grapelive