Many decades before “Morgon,” “Fleurie,” and “Brouilly” became household names among young sommeliers at the best restaurants across the country, there was one undisputed champion of Cru Beaujolais: Moulin-à-Vent. Indeed, if you could time travel to Paris just before the onset of WWII, you would see that these wines used to command the same prices as top villages Burgundy like Volnay and Vosne-Romanée. Why? Because this Cru village has a little secret in its soil—which we’ll explain in detail below—which adds a richness and a structure that is singular among the region and lends extraordinarily long life to these wines. Small wonder that the French nicknamed Moulin-à-Vent “The Lord of Beaujolais Wines.” And when you farm old vines with purpose, and use old-school “Burgundian” winemaking techniques, like the talented team at “Les Gryphées,” you end up with a stunningly complex, built-for-the-cellar beauty that easily rivals much more expensive cousins to the north in the Côte d’Or. This is a seriously great bottle of red, for a remarkably unserious price. Stock up!
Beaujolais, by and large, is country wine, made for early consumption in bars and cafés in nearby Lyon or faraway Paris. As such, there are very few “proper” châteaux in the region, but tellingly, the few that do exist are located in and around the vines of Moulin-à-Vent. Named for the eponymous 15th century windmill that sits majestically atop the highest hill in the appellation, Moulin-à-Vent has actually only been called such since the AOC classification of 1936. For centuries prior, the wines were known by the name of the commune where they grew (much like the rest of Beaujolais, and France in general), which is “Romanèche-Thorins.” Though historic-sounding, it’s pretty clear that the name change was a good idea, and logical too, since the vineyards of this appellation actually cross the border into a neighboring commune, Chénas, which is a Cru in its own right. The other Cru that borders Moulin-à-Vent is Fleurie, now considered the “darling” of wine critics and sommeliers all over the globe, while the majestic, beautiful old “Windmill” is somewhat inexplicably overlooked.
It is definitively NOT overlooked at Domaine Les Gryphées however. Here the father-son team of Pierre and Guillaume Durdilly farm about 35 acres of vineyards in Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, and Moulin-à-Vent, where the estate is headquartered. The name “Les Gryphées” is derived from the ancient marine fossils (gryphées) found in some of their vineyards, where the family first started crafting estate-bottled wines in the 1970s. What stands out about these wines is their incredible detail and purity—these truly are wines that are “grown” rather than made, with fermentations carried out in stainless steel or cement and aging done in large, neutral oak foudre barrels. It’s really all about viticulture for these guys, who plant beneficial herbs between the vine rows to combat erosion and pests and eschew chemical treatments in favor of organic ones.
A fine-tuned, high-toned, wildly aromatic expression of Gamay grown on granite. It shines a bright ruby-garnet in the glass, with aromas reminiscent of a basket-full of woodland berries: black and red raspberries, sour cherry, currants, damp violets, pekoe tea, underbrush, and crushed rocks. It is medium-bodied, with a silken elegance not always found in the ripe, chunky recent vintages of Cru Beaujolais; the balance and perfume are impeccable, and the combination of refinement and refreshment is as good as it gets! Decant this 30 minutes before serving in Burgundy stems at 55-60 degrees and try your best to take your time with it.
