The Chateau des Jacques 2011 Moulin-a-Vent Clos du Grand Carquelin reveals scents of nutmeg, almond extract, and vanilla as well as lightly cooked ripe cherry. It comes to the palate expansive and rich yet, felicitously...
The Chateau des Jacques 2011 Moulin-a-Vent Clos du Grand Carquelin reveals scents of nutmeg, almond extract, and vanilla as well as lightly cooked ripe cherry. It comes to the palate expansive and rich yet, felicitously, juicy and buoyant as well as possessed of alluringly bitter-sweet and elusive inner-mouth iris perfume. Along with saliva-drawing salinity and savory shrimp shell reduction, the merest hint of caramelization is incorporated in its long, succulent finish. Here is a classic instance of virtually 100% new wood at this estate scarcely sapping textural allure or primary juiciness, a phenomenon that de Castelnau is more inclined to attribute to the quality of grape tannins and sheer extract of vinous raw material that results from long but gentle, watchful fermentative extraction (usually followed by malo) as opposed to crediting the provenance or treatment of the estate’s barrels (though surely these represent a glove-fit). “The wine has to be completely constructed before going to barrel” is how he puts it, echoing Jean-Marie Guffens’ well-known and far more than just clever adage that “a wine can take as much new wood as it doesn’t need.” Plan to follow this one through at least 2019. - David Schildknecht