Château Moulin Haut-Laroque: Tasting & Drinking
My early explorations in Fronsac led me to estates other than Château Moulin Haut-Laroque, and it was only when travelling to Bordeaux over the past two decades that I really got to grips with this estate and its wines. And I was glad that I did; these are wines of character which rise up above the general Bordeaux melee, with complex minerally nuances which surely reflect their limestone origins.
But don’t just take my word for it. Japanese authors Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, a brother and sister team who write under the pseudonym Tadashi Agi, featured the estate and its wine (the 2006 vintage, if you’re interested) in their hit manga The Drops of God. Although, being honest, I can’t be sure whether or not they actually tasted the wine, or whether they just liked the rather minimalist label.
Looking for recent vintages, I found the wines of the 2020 vintage convincing when I tasted them as barrel samples during the primeurs, and the grand vin certainly lived up to expectations when tasted from bottle a couple of years later. I was disappointed by the eventual performance put in by the 2020 Château Hervé-Laroque, though, but it would be instructive to revisit this.
