This property has been in the Touchais family for eight generations since 1787, and the estate, located down a side street in Doué-La-Fontaine, is amazingly characterful and has so many stories to tell. Indeed, the famous labyrinth of cellars were bricked over during the German occupation of France during World War 2 to protect the mountains of vintaged stock buried deep in the estate’s cellars. Moulin Touchais is of course famous for the late releases of their Chenin Blanc sweet wines which demand cellaring for at least ten years before a bottle is made available to the market.

Their wines are as famous for their quality as they are for their incredible value for money and have become the “go to” offering for many connoisseurs looking to buy a birth year wine gift. The tasting notes below will serve as a solid and safe guide for years to come for people looking to check on a specific vintage. All bottles barring the 1947 (auction bottle) were sourced from the estate’s cellars for this incredible tasting.

Moulin Touchais Vertical

Moulin Touchais 2016 (Not Yet Released)

Lemon and lime cordial, melon and grapefruit confit. Hint of cream soda and apple purée. Tight and focused, crystalline and pure. Lovely intensity and balance.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2007

Dusty lemon and lanolin nose with dried herbs and mint leaf. Finely textured, creamy palate weight, wonderfully harmonious with a pithy orchard fruit finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2006

Sweet honied nose with subtle damp cellar notes, wet chalk and waxy lemon peel. Quite light and elegant, fine piquant acids, sleek texture and spicy yellow confit finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 92/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2005

More herby, spicy, sappy resinous stemmy nose with hints of crushed leaves. Quite full and ripe with glycerol weight but with fairly restrained flavours of melon confit and ripe amarula fruits and herbal botanical spices.

(Wine Safari Score: 91+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2004

Lemon and lime cordial, yellow grapefruit confit. Plenty of lifted melon fruit aromatics. Fine boned, sleek texture, very elegant with spiced apple purée, lemon marmalade and pithy, chalky finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2003

Ripe exotic aromatics with yellow orchard fruits, chalk and lemon confit. Plush, broad and fleshy texture, opulent, quite showy, unctuous and mouth coatingly sweet made in a more ‘obvious style’ with softer acids. Retains lovely purity of fruit.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2002

Earthy, savoury lemon peel notes, wet chalk and dried baking herbs. Finely balanced with delicious bright green apple and yellow orchard fruits and a fine vein of juicy acidity. Less sweetness, quite focused, but showing great potential for aging.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2001

Ripe pithy tangerine peel and Seville oranges complexity. Notes of marmalade on white toast and subtle sappy herbal nuances. Sleek, cool, fine harmonious palate, lovely fruit – acid equilibrium.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 2000

Musty? Corky? Rot? All three bottles. Buyer beware.

(Wine Safari Score: N/S Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1999

Sweet lemon and grapefruit confit nose, honied and opulent, very expressive. Palate is linear and taut, steely and fresh, plenty of core tension and purity of citrus fruit with subtle chalky finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1998

Cheese rag, melon pastille, apple purée and chalky lift. Palate is pure and plush, wonderfully balanced, creamy and polished with an impressive purity and harmony.

(Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1997

Sweet rich opulent nose of brûléed lemons, citrus confit and 60/70% botrytis honied complexity. Rich and powerful, dense, sweet and textured with dried peaches drizzled in honey. Delicious and opulent with a long finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1996

Sweet lemon cream biscuits, herbs and sappy, leafy complexity, but fine, pithy, fresh tart core. Nice intensity, finely poised, showing great appeal. Lovely and youthful.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1994

More evolved, tertiary notes of lanolin, lemon, waxy apples and a mealy dog biscuits note. Palate show piquant grapefruit marmalade, spice and freshness. Lovely harmony and balance. Palate outshines the nose.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1991

Complex spicy nose of old honey, botanical herbs and wet chalk. Palate is soft and fleshy, more loose knit than many preceding vintages, with an overt resinous sappy spice and sweet, warming finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 90/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1987

More tertiary and honied, showing root veg, earthy, bruised orchard fruits and lanolin wet dog notes. Palate is fresh, piquant and quite spicy with a slightly drying barley sugar finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 89/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1986

Ripe earthy brûléed yellow bruised fruits, cheese rind, peach tea and a slight iodine note. Palate is sweet but very fresh, with lovely depth, effortless balance and superb honied depth. Exotic but deliciously vibrant and fresh.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1985

Sweet honied peach and citrus notes, caramelised orange peel and honey. Palate is vibrant and fresh, quite tart and pure with green apple purée, quince and grapefruit confit. Lovely length and finesse and a slightly tighter finish.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1984

Rich, brûléed peachy honied nose with earthy, nutty, mealy dog biscuit nuances, and sweet herbal peach tea with a spoonful of honey. Complex, sleek texture, vibrant acids holding this wine together beautifully.

(Wine Safari Score: 93/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1983

Rich cognac gold colour, showing alluring teritiary notes of earthy root spice and hard cheese rind. Palate is tart and focused, fresh and taut with a vibrant energy and acid brightness. Lovely crystalline purity, mouth watering and juicy. Impressive.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Importer Richard Kelley MW pouring a flight of wines.

Moulin Touchais 1982

Rich, brûléed lemon biscuit notes, custard, puff pastry and peach parfait. Lush, bright, and quite taut, lovely piquant depth, opulence and good botrytis characters. Certain leanness and linearity, but finely balanced and focused.

(Wine Safari Score: 94/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1981

Subtle tertiary notes of earthy bruised orchard fruits, brûléed green figs, citrus confit. Plush and broad, bright fruits, peach tea, grapefruit confit, vibrant youthful palate and a long, sweet – sour apple pastille length. Delicious.

(Wine Safari Score: 95+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1980

Pronounced dusty, crushed slate, chalky, herby nose with vermouth botanical notes. Earthy, exotic, dusty with hints of peanut brittle and caramelised salty toffee.

(Wine Safari Score: 89+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1979

Beautiful rich golden toffee colour, has lovely lifted aromatics reminiscent of a serial Madeira, with nuts, toffee, cheese cloth, brine and brûléed peach and quince. Palate is fresh and ultra lush, dense, with brûléed sweet / sour plum, melon and an elegant, drying, classy long finish. Superb.

(Wine Safari Score: 95/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1976

Earthy wet chalk nose with herbal hints and spicy lift. Quite shy and restrained nose with a slightly more expressive palate. Tight, broody, spicy honied yellow fruit.

(Wine Safari Score: 90+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1975

Dusty, chalky brûléed nose with burnt sugar, piquant spice, reduced root veg notes, cabbage and sweet bruised orchard fruits and grape jelly. Spicy, tart, slightly lean.

(Wine Safari Score: 92+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Frederik Wilbrenninck from the Moulin Touchais estate pouring a flight.

Moulin Touchais 1971

Waxy green apple, mealy biscuit and earthy lemon peel. Palate is sleek, retrained, quite mineral and taut, showing crushed gravel, chalk spice and a piquant depth. Linear, non-showy but quite finely textured.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1968

Brûléed, rich oxidative nose similar to Adrian again but perhaps in a more Bual or Terrantez style. Vibrant salty acids, lovely briney focus and rich, pithy length brimming with cognac spice, sweet orange peel, marmalade and nutty cheese cloth complexity.

(Wine Safari Score: 93+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1964

Corked.

(Wine Safari Score: N/S Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1959

Pristine and pure nose of lemon and herbs, nutty, brûléed pineapple, molasses and salted caramel. Pure, sleek, cool and regal, this is truly profound. Vibrant salty fresh acids, piercing length and mouth wateringly youthful. Wow!

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1955

Brine, tangerine peel, citrus, naartjie and pithy spicy herbal lift. Rich, sweet / sour tartness, bright, vibrant, deliciously juicy. Great salty opulence. Superb.

(Wine Safari Score: 96/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1953

Sweet herbal, honied root veg, lanolin and wet wool. Sleek, nutty, bright and saline with very fine. Fine texture, crystalline palate. Lovely.

(Wine Safari Score: 94+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais 1947

Soft subtle nose of caramelised lemons, salted caramel, orange peel and honied white peaches. Suave, sleek and ultra elegant, dancing across the palate with ballerina finesse and profound concentrated depth. So pure, so bright, so much youthful energy. Truly wonderful as you’d expect from the ‘vintage of the century.’

(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Moulin Touchais Century Reserve NV

Exotic nose of sweet yellow peaches, quince, kumquat, passionfruit and caramelised fig. Palate is bright and tart, combining the spellbinding opulence of blended vintages from 1847 to 1899. Lovely salty sweetness, purity, clarity and intensity. Profound.

(Wine Safari Score: 97+/100 Greg Sherwood MW)