Sitting at the heart of Moulin-à-Vent, Château des Jacques, with a history that dates back to the 17th century, stands out as a benchmark estate of this most prominent of Beaujolais crus. Now with significant vineyard holdings of over 30 hectares in Moulin-à-Vent including some wonderful old-vine plots, this Burgundian-owned property produces wines of depth, structure and remarkable longevity. The latest single-vineyard releases from Château des Jacques come from the 2025 vintage, a vintage that winemaker Julie Pitoiset calls ‘amazing,’ and they promise many years of drinking pleasure.
Order by midday, Thursday 15th October
Bought by Louis Jadot in 1996, after some 65 years of ownership – and single-minded vision – by the Thorin family (they were not distracted by Beaujolais Nouveau or carbon maceration, and instead never veered off their path of making serious, ageworthy fine wines), the attention to detail from the vineyard right through to the cellar is both rigorous and meticulous. Farming methods are organic, with an increasing focus on soil health since 2018/19. Yields are just 35hl/ha on average (vs. the permitted 54hl/ha for the appellation) and this is reflected in the concentration of the wines.
Overall, 2025 was a warm/warmer vintage (in contrast to the cooler 2024) but with regular rainfall throughout the season tempering the heat and providing succour in the particularly dry conditions at the very end of the summer. A wet winter allowed the vineyard soils to build up good water reserves before the heatwave of August and enabled steady ripening progress.
Moulin-à-Vent’s geology is complex and Château des Jacques’ vineyards have diverse exposures and altitudes, producing distinctive site-specific wines which will each have their different followers. Winemaking can be described as classically Burgundian in style, in terms of working mostly with de-stemmed fruit, rather than whole bunches, and barrel ageing of ten to twelve months with typically around 20-25% new French oak for the single vineyards. I have deliberately suggested in my optimal drinking windows that you don’t even need to start approaching these wines until they are five years old, but the truth is that they really start to come into their own at ten years.
The astonishing ageing capacity of cru Beaujolais has been the single biggest revelation of my first year buying Beaujolais for The Society. And of the mature bottles I’ve tasted that have demonstrated this to me, the majority have been from Château des Jacques. Their 1999 Clos de Rochegrès (tasted with my predecessor Harriet Kininmonth last November) was the first bottle that blew me away and another was the 2008 of the same vineyard, ordered from a restaurant list in Burgundy – 18 years old and yet still supremely youthful.
Both wines were liquid proof of why it is said that great gamay, with age, evokes great pinot noir (I have always loved the verb for this phenomenon: to pinote, in other words to become more like pinot noir).
The 2025 vintage from the estate is deep and concentrated with incredible tannin quality and retains a freshness and dynamism which I find exciting. These are fantastic-value fine wines you can (and should try to!) age for a decade or more…
