Wine of the week: an impressive and charming thoroughbred

Looking over my past tips for MoneyWeek, I noticed that this very wine, albeit the 2010 vintage, appeared on this page back in 2011. La Roilette is, without a doubt, one of my favourite red wines in the world. It ticks an amazing number of boxes: its epic flavour, year in year out; its stunning value for money; its vast food and wine-matching skills; and its popularity on the very best restaurant wine lists, giving all-comers a genuine place of refuge (often between the £40 and £50 mark, which is virtually impossible to find these days). It is also one of the truly great Beaujolais.

Clos de la Roilette, while situated in Fleurie, sits smack on the border of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. It is named after a racehorse, whose rather sketchy, donkey-like image is depicted on the label. The estate is planted with vines aged between 30 and 80 years and the wine is a thoroughbred that manages to summon up both the floral beauty of a blushing Fleurie while possessing the deeper, throbbing, horsepower of a Moulin-à-Vent.

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This gives Roilette the rare attribute of drinking exceedingly well in its youth, but also being able to hold on for an age, which is useful if odd bottles get mislaid in your cellar. I have stumbled across ten-year-old versions of this charming nag and they always taste incredible. Grab a case of this pedigree specimen and you will be amazed at the breeding on display.

2018 Fleurie, La Roilette, Domaine Coudert, Beaujolais, France – £19.95, Domaine Direct, 020-7404 9933, email sales@domainedirect.co.uk; harveynichols.com

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

This article was originally published in MoneyWeek