2022 Domaine Anita, Moulin -À- Vent “Cœur de Vigneronne” Cru Beaujolais, France.
The Domaine Anita label, led by Anita Kuhnel (Neveu), 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, with this exciting purple/garnet and floral 2022 Moulin -À- Vent “Cœur de Vigneronne” from 50 year old vines, being a step up on everything I’ve tried so far with a deep and dark core of pure Gamay fruit, it’s perfect for those that want a richer, clear and more polished style version of Beaujolais. Anita is certainly going down her own route and creating wines that have their own distinctive personality, with this special Moulin -À- Vent Cœur de Vigneronne, maybe her signature bottling, showing off ripe black currant, plum, cherry and black raspberry fruits along with sprigs of wild fennel, dried herbs, rose oil, walnut and lingering black fig and subtle acidity, making for a supple, but nice structured Beaujolais that is drinking satiny smooth already. This cuvée is getting a lot of attention, deservingly so, and it is very different from my early experiences with Moulin -À- Vent, which tended to be grippy and chewy wines, far more rustic and tannic by nature than this luxurious and expressive example. I picked up a combination of these latest Domaine Anita wines and a few bottles of each, which I will stagger and open over the next few years to see how they develop, but there seems to be no reason not to enjoy them right away, with the hedonism and youthful fruit, even if I do enjoy aged Cru Beaujolais.
Vigeron Anita Kuhnel (Neveu), at Domaine Anita, as mentioned in prior reviews, is a rising star and 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, a plot in Fleurie and another in Chénas. 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. This vineyard, I understand, is set on a pink granite subsoil, at an altitude of 240 meters, with a warm exposure, helping to full ripen the grapes and retaining energy. 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 and she uses ex-Burgundy barrels to age the Cru bottlings like this one. For this special cuvée Cœur de Vigneronne and her Chateau-Galliard Morgon, reviewed from the 2021 vintage, Anita did 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 to end up with the silky and opulent mouth feel and concentrated fruit density seen in the finished wine. After the fermentation, this wine was raised for about 11 months in oak barrels, with enough toast to leave a whiff of shaved vanilla, along with the textural feel, and then it saw 5 months in the bottle before release.
($39 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive