Finally, one older vintage that was tasted back in London following my trip to Beaujolais, the 1999 Moulin-a-Vent Clos du Grand Carquelin has a strangely conservative, Cote d’Or-like bouquet with quite dense dark berry fruit. The palate is supple on the entry, with nicely judged acidity and clean dark plum and boysenberry fruit. It is still quite youthful and yet it does not quite express the essence of Beaujolais with the clarity I was hoping for.
As well as substantial holdings in the Cote d’Or, Maison Louis Jadot also tend significant holdings south in Beaujolais and most notably have owned the 80 hectares belonging to Chateau des Jacques since 1996. Harvest is done by hand, sorted and completely de-stemmed, Chateau des Jacques being one of the first to introduce this practice. Guillaume del Castelnau manages the winery. The wines are fermented naturally and raised in French oak barrels, including what, for this region, represents quite a generous proportion of new oak. It should be clear that there is a strong Burgundy influence on the wines of Chateau des Jacques. It is a matter of taste whether you see this as a good or bad thing. There is no doubt that the standards are as exacting as they are in Burgundy, yet the case can be put forward that wine has a duty to express its region and not mimic others, even if they might be inherently superior. That is a very tricky question to answer, and yours will depend on what is important to you in a bottle of wine. Personally, I have always found the wines from Chateau des Jacques well-crafted and with a propensity to reward cellaring. On the other hand, if it was myself making the decision, I would just pull back from that generous veneer of new oak to allow the terroir to come through, because even with age, it can render the wines just a little “formulaic.”
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