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 On the banks of the river Layon that threads its way through the gently rolling hills of the Loire Valley, exists one of the world's largest and oldest single wine stocks. Miles of underground cellars contain a rare collection dating back to the 1800's. Remarkable bottles, [many being over one hundred years old] are occasionally uncorked and more often than not the experience is incredible: for the wines are undiminished with the passing of a century - rather, they possess a vitality and elegance that is completely unexpected. These are the sweet Chenin Blanc wines from Moulin Touchais - the sensory equivalent to 'immortality' on earth. Since 1787, the Moulin Touchais cellars together with the surrounding vineyards have been owned and managed by eight generations of the Touchais family. The vineyards are amongst the most famous in the Anjou area, lying in the heart of the Loire Valley in the Coteaux du Layon region.
Rare, Luxurious and Unique
Some twenty years ago, Nicks Wine Merchants introduced these extraordinary wines to Australia which were showered with exceptional reviews. Peter Joice, the then President of the International Wine and Food Society was so impressed with these wines that he awarded them a perfect score - something that he had never done before. We visited the Estate in the late 1980's and have fond memories of the wines and the vineyards. Joseph Touchais was the force behind Moulin Touchais, "...a man of few words, listening carefully, seldom in a hurry." Joseph worked in the vineyards and winery "until the very last moment... and having his tasting at 11am of one or two bottles right out of the cellar, in order to'freshen up his memory' as he called this holy moment". In order to understand the meaning behind this comment, one has to appreciate the vast collection of wines that Joseph Touchais produced and cellared.
Today, Jeanmarie Touchais, the youngest son, has taken over the operation, assisted by Alex Wilbrennick. The methods of viticulture and vinification have changed little over the years, still based on the traditional values of low-yields, careful harvesting and meticulous winemaking, particularly during pressing and the long fermentation period. The grapes are hand-picked in several stages. The real secret of the Moulin Touchais longevity and charming complexity results from this harvesting strategy: 20% of the grapes are picked around 80 days after flowering while the fruit is still underripe and loaded with acidity, the other 80% is harvested late (one hundred & twenty days after flowering) yielding fruit with high sugar levels and concentrated flavours. High acidity and sugar levels ultimately determine Moulin Touchais' opulent style: smooth and elegant.
These wines are international treasures
They will
be a rare and wonderful addition to any serious cellar
 Only the healthiest grapes are chosen; the pips are removed and the must is clarified by decanting before beginning the slow fermentation process which is spread over several weeks. The wine is bottled early; between the end of February and early March following the harvest. Only the best vintages will leave the cellars under the Moulin Touchais name after a minimum of ten years cellarage. Indeed, a good 'Anjou' will only begin to indicate its qualities after a decade. (One anecdote from a local has it that his parents celebrated their wedding in 1972 by opening a bottle of their 1872 Moulin Touchais!)
With each bottle the Estate strives for perfection without pretention. The Chenin Blanc grape, brought to an overripe stage but unaffected by the noble rot due to the geographic situation of the area give Moulin Touchais that outstanding freshness and typically fine, beautifully balanced acidity which lingers on the lips and on the palate.
The wines of Moulin Touchais begin reaching their peak after twenty years, and many of the great vintages will take much longer. Vintages such as the 1953, 1959, 1964, 1969 are still maturing. The 1945, 1947 and 1949 have become classics. Moulin Touchais are the only winemakers in the world who give a century long guarantee on the longevity of their wines (subject to being kept under optimal cellar conditions). Bottles may show some sediment or deposit. One should understand this is due to the traditional filtration process, the main aim being to protect the colour, the bouquet and the depth of flavour of the wine.
 Click here to purchase any of the available Moulin Touchais vintages
Click here to purchase any of the available Moulin Touchais vintages
1994 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
This was the first wine in the tasting lineup. Bright straw colour with pale straw hue. The nose is subdued and like many of the following wines will greatly evolve over time. Nuances of honey, honeycombe and quince, followed by semi ripe apricot, lemon and spice. The palate has a degree of elegance that at first impression would be mistaken for simplicity - but it is not. The palate weight resembles a Barsac, the flavour profile emerges by a process of creep rather than explosion and develops intensity and persistence with real style and elegance. The acidity is crisp, but in balance. Flavours of apricot and honeycombe, lemon and honey. Clean dry finish. Very long aftertaste of honeycomb, lemon and semi ripe apricots.
Cellar: 20+ years
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 94/100
Value: 
1992 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Brilliant lemon gold colour with golden straw hue. The nose is a touch more obvious than the 1994, but still restrained. Semi ripe apricots, honey, spice and honeycombe notes emerge, followed by a hint of lemon. The palate is already showing early layers of complexity with hints of quince, apricot, honeycombe and a touch of 'scotch finger' biscuit. Clean finish with aftertaste of honeycombe and apricot. Again a wine that displays that rare duality of delicacy and power.
Cellar: 20+ years
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 95/100
Value: 
1990 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Fourteen years old, and the colour has deepened to a lemon gold with a brilliant green hue. The nose again is relatively closed, but reveals notes of spice and acacia blossom. The richness of the palate is evident, and one can detect an early trend emerging in these wines as they age. There are hints of toffee over apricot, quince, spice and lemon. The fruit characteristics seem to be growing at this point, with flavours of honeycomb, lemon and spice emerging. Again, the duality between elegance and persistence is apparent. Clean acid finish. Very persistent aftertaste of lemon, honey and quince.
Cellar: 20+ years
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1989 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Brilliant brassy gold colour with a hint of green. The nose is marginally more lifted. Subtle aroma of acacia blossom, followed by hints of honeycombe and lemon. The palate is becoming more luscious and the mouthfeel more textural. The depth of flavour on the palate appears a little short in this wine. Soft acidity. Elegant but light. Very long spicy honeycombe, lemon aftertaste with the spiciness persisting.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1987 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Brilliant deep brassy gold colour with yellow gold hue. Subtle nose with notes of lemon, quince and apricot emerging. The palate now begins to express a Sauternes like quality (as distinct from Barsac). Complex layers of flavours are creeping in - these wines grow gradually. Time is on their side, so the notion of instantaneous rush is absent - slow and long is the order. Spice, honey and honeycombe flavours emerge followed by hints of confectionary, lemon and quince. Excellent persistence. Very long aftertaste of honey, honeycomb, quince and just a trace of butterscotch.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 96/100
Value:
1985 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
This wine really demonstrates the aging potential and wonderful flavour profile that these wines develop. Deep golden colour with deep orange gold hue. There is a hint of oloroso sherry like note at first sniff, followed by hints of honeycombe and orange rind. The palate shows great power and concentration. Flavours of lemon, honey, orange and caramel emerge. Excellent levels of acidity. Perfect balance. Very persistent aftertaste of caramel, orange rind, honeycombe, lemon and honey.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1982 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, France
Brilliant golden colour with golden hue. The nose remains subtle again, with nuances of orange blossom, caramel, toffee, apple and spice. Rich luscious palate with generous mouthfeel. The complexity is beginning to take on even greater expression here; spice, toffee apple, lemon and honeycomb flavours are layered over a viscous palate. The acidity is still fresh, with very long aftertaste of toffee apple, honey and lemon.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1977 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Brilliant golden colour with pale gold hue. The nose is again restrained - a characteristic that appears with most of these wines. Aroma of honey, lemon and toffee apple. The palate is remarkably youthful; luscious with flavours of lemon, spice and honeycombe flavours followed by sugared pear. Clean acid finish. Very long aftertaste of honeycombe, lemon and spice.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1975 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
Brilliant, brassy gold colour with gold straw hue. The nose is still relatively closed, with toffee apple and spice emerging. The palate flavours are complex, luscious and reflect the great aging ability of these wines. Flavours of lemon, spice and honey emerge supported by a crisp acid backbone. Excellent length and persistence. Very long aftertaste of honey and lemon.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1971 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
A wine that is still vibrant with youth, displaying remarkable freshness. Deep brassy gold colour with deep straw hue. Aroma of bakedapple and spice followed by hints of confectionary. The wine expresses great concentration of flavours and mouthfeel with very spicy characteristics. Flavours of honey, honeycomb, baked apple and lemon fill the palate. The acidity is fresh, holding the structure of this wine together superbly. Very long aftertaste of honeysuckle, honeycombe, lemon and toffee.
Cellar: 20+ years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 98/100
Value:
1959 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
A stunning example of an aged Moulin Touchais but by no means at its peak. These remarkable wines are an International treasure, and clearly demonstrate the power and longevity of these sweet wines. Brilliant orange gold colour. This is the first sign of advancing colour. Yellow gold hue. The nose is pronounced, the first wine in the line-up that expressed strong intensity on the nose. Pronounced oloroso spice nose - a superb sniff. Totally mouthfilling- no more creep of flavour, just a powerhouse of oloroso, orange rind, honey, toffee, apple, spice and lemon. There appears no sign of middle age here, this is a very athletic wine.Very youthful acid finish. Exceptionally long aftertaste of honeycomb, toffee, lemon and spice. A wine of great length and persistence. There is no doubt it will last for 100 years.
Cellar: 100 years.
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Rating: 100/100
Value:
Click here to purchase any of the available Moulin Touchais vintages
Masterpieces of the Nineteenth Century - The Grandfather Wines Of Moulin Touchais
 To offer a one hundred year guarantee on a bottle of table wine would seem to be a foolish proposition. The first doubt that comes to mind is the fact that very few wines are capable of lasting that long, and even if one could find such a wine, what guarantee is there that the company making such an offer will be in business in one hundred years time? Then there is the simple arithmetic problem that even a school boy can work out. How many of us are going to live a hundred years, and if we do, will we have the mental awareness to appreciate what we are drinking? There is one wine producer who has overcome all of these doubts. That producer is Moulin Touchais from the Loire Valley in France.
The wines of Moulin Touchais are made from Chenin Blanc, which surprisingly, is not botrytized. It is picked in two batches, the first around eighty days after flowering, which results in the grapes being unripe and very high in acidity. The second lot are harvested at one hundred and twenty days after flowering, by which time the acidity has dropped and the grapes are loaded with sugar. The acid is the key to the wines longevity - and in many ways this type of winemaking can be compared with the Semillons from the Hunter Valley, which are picked at very high acid levels and bottle aged for a minimum of 5 years. Clare Valley Rieslings follow a similar pattern, but in both cases there is little possibility of a hundred years bottle life. Moulin Touchais ferment each of the wines separately around September to November, and leave them in neutral storage until around March the following year. The wines are bottled and then allowed to age for a minimum of 10 years prior to release.
Moulin Touchais are the only winemakers in the world who give a century long guarantee on the longevity of their wines
So what guarantee is there, even under these winemaking conditions, that the wines will live 100 years? The answer to that question can only be revealed by tasting old bottles of Moulin Touchais. We recently conducted such a tasting in Melbourne at Jacque Reymond Restaurant. Thirteen vintages were assembled - many of these wines were previously tasted with full tasting notes above. The wines tasted were from the following vintages: 1994, 1992, 1990, 1989, 1985, 1982, 1977, 1975, 1971 and 1959. The highlights were the Grandfathers: 1892, 1885 and 1872. These wines were all re corked and re waxed then air freighted to Australia several months prior to the tasting. We must admit that a certain degree of anxiety accompanied these rare wines and we hoped that they would be more than Vinous Currios. For those of you whose arithmetic skills are doubtful, the age of the wines were 112 years, 119 years and 132 years. We are told that the oldest wine remaining in the cellar of Moulin Touchais is from 1823. So what did these wines taste like? Interestingly, at 100 years of age, the wines are probably still not at their peak. In a word, they were described by wine critic, James Halliday as being 'euphoric!'
1892 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
The 1892 was the first wine in the line up of nineteenth century wines. All wines were cooled to 14ºC and opened shortly before being served. The 1892 wine was the lightest in colour of the three, being orange with golden hue. The nose continued to evolve over the course of half an hour during which time the wines were carefully sipped and evaluated for every nuance of flavour. Aroma of toffee, caramel, honey and spice emerge with a touch of rancio being evident. The palate has dried out, but not totally, and revealed flavours of amontillado sherry, toffee and toffee apple. Excellent finesse, with a sense of complexity that just kept evolving. Very good palate length with an acid backbone that is still displaying a sense of freshness. Very clean finish, with very long aftertaste of honey and toffee apple. A wonderful taste experience.
Rating: 99/100
Value:
1885 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
This wine was the highlight of the tasting and in spite of its age showed no signs of drying out and still supported by an excellent level of acidity. Sienna brown colour showing its considerable age, but by no means overdeveloped. Superb nose of toffee and caramel that evolves after a few minutes with honey amontillado end notes. The palate delivers a powerful flavour profile, complex layers of honey, toffee, orange rind overlaid with hints of rancio and amontillado like sherry. The palate displays a sweetness that is comparable to the 1959 Moulin Touchais. The acidity gives the wine a remarkable length and depth. Perfect balance, with a very long honey, toffee and orange rind aftertaste. A euphoric tasting experience!
Rating: 99/100
Value:
1872 Moulin Touchais
Region: Coteaux du Layon, Loire Valley France
A remarkable wine. The oldest wine of the trio and by far the deepest in colour. Burnt amber colour with sienna brown and olive hue. Superb nose - lifted notes of honey, toffee, caramel, followed by a hint of rancio. The palate is drying out, but by no means completely dry, with that remarkable acid backbone giving the wine its sense of vitality and adding to the palate length and balance. Flavours of rancio, honey and toffee emerge. Perfect balance, a rare feat given the age of the wine, again with that remarkable acid backbone, which has been common to all three Grandfather Moulin Touchais wines. Very long and quite powerful amontillado like aftertaste. A sensational tasting experience.
Rating: 99/100
Value:
Click here to purchase any of the available Moulin Touchais vintages
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