There we were two Raconteurs of different eras, enjoying a private tasting at the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan.  I have to admit, that learning about wines, is much easier today, even in the Detroit area, compared to when I was starting out.  There were few and far between wine shops that had the caliber of wine selection that I now found at my local shop.  I like to still refer to those days as the Dark Days, when if you wanted to learn, you had your job cut out for you.  Back then Detroit was a cocktail or a beer town and only a few restaurants did more than give lip service to wine, but one could persevere, if there was a desire.  The wine I am going to talk about, the last time I had it, was from a vintage forty years earlier.

The wine is from Moulis-en-Medoc, which is a small village in the Haut-Medoc and is definitely overshadowed by its neighbor Margaux, which is how I first encounter wines from this village. The AOC laws are quite strict, especially governing crop density and other agricultural concerns, as well as the grapes must come from six specific parishes.  There are no classified growths, but offer values that will remind one of a nice Margaux wine, as the wines here are usually a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Carmenere and Petit Verdot.

Chateau Maucaillou Moulis 2010 is claimed to have the oldest vineyard in the Medoc with recordings of ownership going back to the 15^th Century. Commercially, the history goes back to 1871 when the negocient family Petit-Larouch built cellars there and four years later a chateau. In 1929 the Dourthe family purchased the estate and took the winery from two hectares to eventually thirty-two hectares. The estate is basically ninety percent planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and the balance is Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Malolactic fermentation takes place immediately after the initial fermentation while the juice is still in Stainless Steel.  The wines are then aged for eighteen to twenty months in French Oak, of which more than half are new.  The winery also produces several secondary labels to their flagship Chateau Maucaillou.  This was a beautiful and classic glass of Medoc wine, and I am sorry, but that to me, is a great way to describe a wine; that was how I was taught and I will continue to use that as a wonderful descriptor, after all, I am a Street Somm.