Moulin-à-Vent

Discover the Moulin-à-Vent appellation

Among the 10 crus made in the Beaujolais vineyard (Fleurie, Juliénas, Chiroubles and many more), the Moulin-à-Vent is held in very high regard. This appellation of origin, created in 1924 (that's twelve years before the first AOC saw the light of day) and previously simply called "Romanèche-Thorins", got its name from an ancient windmill (the English translation of "moulin à vent"). The building has been standing on top of a hill, in the middle of the vineyard, since 1550. In 1930, this windmill even became a Historic Monument and, to this day, it is still in one piece.

Historically speaking, it was the Roman Empire that started to develop the vineyard in the Beaujolais region, somewhere around the 1st century AD. It was only in the late 15th century that winemaking really turned into a business. At the time, the local bourgeoisiesaw an opportunity and invested a lot of money and effort into the Moulin-à-Vent vineyard, in turn developing its notoriety. In 1862, the wines produced in this vineyard even received the first prize during the Great Universal Exhibition in London.

With its 680 hectares of vineyard on the communes of Chénas and Romanèche-Thorins, the Moulin-à-Vent appellation is produced by 300 winemakers, amounting to an output of 34,000 hectoliters of wine each year. The grape varieties used to make these wines are mainly Gamay (red grapes, 85% of the total production) and just a few parcels of Chardonnay, Aligoté and Melon. Gamay grapes are especially fond of the region's acidic granite soils, that are filled to the brim with trace elements.

Browse our selection of Moulin-à-Vent wines.