Skip to content
WineHQ
Search

Appellation · France

Moulin-à-Vent

The most powerful and longest-lived Beaujolais cru, named after a windmill and grown on manganese-rich granite.

Moulin-à-Vent AOCcontinentalmoderate
What to expect in the glass

Medium-to-full bodied red with dark cherry, violets and a firm tannic structure — the most substantial Gamay made anywhere. Age it five to fifteen years.

About Moulin-à-Vent

Moulin-à-Vent is the cru most often described as the "king" of Beaujolais, and the one built to age. Ten- and twenty-year-old bottles develop a savoury, truffled complexity that has nothing to do with the region’s popular image.

The vineyard sits on pink granite with an unusually high manganese content. The frequently repeated claim that the manganese is what makes the wines age is not something the evidence supports; what is clear is that the site is poor, well-drained and low-yielding.

There is no village of Moulin-à-Vent. The appellation is named after a windmill standing in the vineyards.

What the name means

Legal name
Moulin-à-Vent AOC
Type
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Protégée (AOC / AOP)
Set by
INAO
Regulates
Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.

The delimited area, permitted varieties, maximum yields, minimum alcohol, pruning and training methods, and in many cases minimum ageing. Administered by INAO.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

Cru Beaujolais

Gamay from the ten named granite hills — structured, mineral and ageworthy, and nothing like Beaujolais Nouveau.

Rules worth knowing

Confirmed in the EU register

Moulin-à-Vent is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-FR-A0933, protected at EU level since 1973.

Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013

Specification published: Official Journal C 87, 15.3.2021 · Official Journal

Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.

The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Cru Beaujolais

Serve at 14–16°C (cellar cool).

Try with turkey, sausage and mash or vegetarian dishes.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Fleurie — The most perfumed of the Beaujolais crus, and the one whose name has done most for its sales.
  • Chénas — The smallest of the ten crus, adjoining Moulin-à-Vent and making a slightly softer version of it.
  • Morgon — The sturdiest of the Beaujolais crus, on decomposed schist, and the one that ages most convincingly into something resembling Burgundy.

Sources

Sources consulted