2016 Maison L'Envoye Moulin-a-Vent 'Terre de The' 750 ml

The Sommelier’s Secret $22 Red

In the never-ending quest for the perfect under-$25 weeknight red, the sommeliers know best: drink Cru Beaujolais. The best of them, like this stellar, spice-scented 2016 Maison L’Envoyé Moulin-à-Vent Terre de Thé, offer the same plush, red-fruited intensity, elegance, and pleasure you’d expect from Burgundy at a fraction of the cost.

Boasting bright bing cherry and black raspberry flavors, and a graceful finish, the 2016 was named a “Best Buy” and the “Year’s Best Beaujolais” by Wine & Spirits Magazine. 

It is widely recognized that Moulin-à-Vent is the best of the ten appellations that have received the Cru Beaujolais designation. Each has its own personality: Fleurie is known for its ethereal delicacy, Morgon for its mineral depth. The wines of Moulin-à-Vent are the biggest, most powerfully structured, and most age-worthy.

Maison L’Envoyé, which has produced critically adored Pinot Noirs from regions around the world, has been putting out what many rank among the best Moulin-à-Vent bottles. The grapes for this wine come from 60-year-old, gobelet-trained vines in the Terre de Thé vineyard. Maison L’Envoyé is a superstar partnership between Mark Tarlov, famed for founding Evening Land Vineyards, and brilliant Burgundy consulting winemaker Louis-Michel Liger-Belair, whose Vosne-Romanée wines can fetch thousands of dollars per bottle. They bring a minimalist Burgundian touch to this wine: 50% of the fruit was destemmed before the berries underwent open-top fermentation with wild yeasts, while the other 50% fermented as whole clusters. Aging occurred in third-use French oak.

As James Suckling’s vintage report on the phenomenal 2015 and 2016 classes of Cru Beaujolais made clear, the region is transforming from an under-the-radar sommelier secret to an exciting, sought-after commodity, especially among natural wine fans. Overflowing with virtues for red wine drinkers—juicy and rich enough to enjoy in the short term, but with the firm tannic structure to age for up to a decade, deeply imprinted with terroir—these wines are ridiculously good values.