I visited Saumur and Chinon in 2013 about three months before I opened my wine store. I was CONVINCED after that trip that I'd sell a ton of the stuff - it was so so good. I told winemakers we were going to be champions of the region and they laughed a little bit. They knew how hard it was to sell their wines. We quickly found that people either didn't know the region (for reds at least) or didn't like their earthiness. We were gutted! But persisted nonetheless. Cab Franc is too good to let go by the wayside.
You are so right Jason! Well that’s the privilege of being a native born European: we know those things as an “acuired taste”. Cabernet Frank is a cool climat red that’s gething even better nowadays by the Climat Change (thanks to you guys: drill baby drill). It’s our secret: let the world buy our overprized Bourgogne/Bordeaux, we will keep and drink the delicious Loire wines!
Great piece, Jason. After starting my brand as a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant house in 1996, I found the Cab Francs of the Loire at Kermit Lynch's wine shop in Berkeley. He brings in the Jouguet and the Domaine Bernard Baudry, among many others. This was 2000, and that initial introduction changed my life. My brand, now, is focused on Cab Franc from the Livermore Valley (one of the best places in the world for this grape) and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
No other grape offers an equal range of alluring and mysterious aromatics, a sexiness of structure that just draws the drinker in, and a price to quality ratio that blows Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, and Burgundy out of the water.
Love the area, and I enjoy Chinon wines although like most things, diversity matters and younger Cabernet Franc bottles can share a certain sameness if you drunk them often, even when trying wines from many producers (Joguet is the top of the top, in my experience, but the higher end wines at that winery get very expensive and need a decade or even many decades to mature).
Most Chinon producers make great bistro wines, and deliver them consistently in vintage after vintage, but few achieve what I would call greatness. Olga often has some older wines available at her winery on the side of town and those are worth trying: not all Chinon ages well, but her bottles do. At age ten they aren’t automatically better, but even this amount of aging can bring diversity to the dinner table! You don’t mention her white wines, but I think they are excellent, and these days I think the Loire whites are often the more interesting bottles. You get such regional variation: Mentou Salon often shows aromas of honeysuckle or melon, Vouvray has a fascinating minerality, Chinon whites aim for a dry,supple style, and Savvignieres truly tastes like a hint of sea spray reaches the vines!
Saumur whites are stylistically like Chinon whites… I really like what they do at La Manoir de la Tete Rouge, the Tete d’Ange white. Really amazing for the price point.
A very cool producer and winery is Marc Plouzeau. Under his own label the quality is similar to Olga Raffault, but he also bottles the Château de la Bonneliere Touraine Ante Phylloxera Clos de Maulevrier: a wine you kind of need to beg for and can only buy a bottle or two at a time, but fun to try, from pre-phylloxera vines that are really a single tangled vine in a monastery courtyard (which you cannot visit). Apparently the tangle originated as one vine, but is self rooted and by now is a unique grape patch that only Marc is permitted to harvest. The oldest of the ancient stems may be hundreds of years old. My guess is that these bottles need a decade or more to really show their stuff.
Did you read my article Ken? I recommended all of those producers. I would disagree that Charles Joguet is the “top of the top” but it’s very good for sure. I also disagree that Chinon can’t be great. “Great” is all relative
I was sharing my own options, not criticizing yours. Although I sincerely do feel that the area is more intellectually challenging and interesting for white wines and that the reds are much too similar to one-another.
I visited Saumur and Chinon in 2013 about three months before I opened my wine store. I was CONVINCED after that trip that I'd sell a ton of the stuff - it was so so good. I told winemakers we were going to be champions of the region and they laughed a little bit. They knew how hard it was to sell their wines. We quickly found that people either didn't know the region (for reds at least) or didn't like their earthiness. We were gutted! But persisted nonetheless. Cab Franc is too good to let go by the wayside.
We must persist!
Thanks for this! I’ve been a fan of Olga Raffault for years but there is plenty of stuff here I’ve never heard about and need to check out :)
Yes! Dive in!
You are so right Jason! Well that’s the privilege of being a native born European: we know those things as an “acuired taste”. Cabernet Frank is a cool climat red that’s gething even better nowadays by the Climat Change (thanks to you guys: drill baby drill). It’s our secret: let the world buy our overprized Bourgogne/Bordeaux, we will keep and drink the delicious Loire wines!
LOL very true
Great piece, Jason. After starting my brand as a Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant house in 1996, I found the Cab Francs of the Loire at Kermit Lynch's wine shop in Berkeley. He brings in the Jouguet and the Domaine Bernard Baudry, among many others. This was 2000, and that initial introduction changed my life. My brand, now, is focused on Cab Franc from the Livermore Valley (one of the best places in the world for this grape) and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
No other grape offers an equal range of alluring and mysterious aromatics, a sexiness of structure that just draws the drinker in, and a price to quality ratio that blows Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, and Burgundy out of the water.
Love the area, and I enjoy Chinon wines although like most things, diversity matters and younger Cabernet Franc bottles can share a certain sameness if you drunk them often, even when trying wines from many producers (Joguet is the top of the top, in my experience, but the higher end wines at that winery get very expensive and need a decade or even many decades to mature).
Most Chinon producers make great bistro wines, and deliver them consistently in vintage after vintage, but few achieve what I would call greatness. Olga often has some older wines available at her winery on the side of town and those are worth trying: not all Chinon ages well, but her bottles do. At age ten they aren’t automatically better, but even this amount of aging can bring diversity to the dinner table! You don’t mention her white wines, but I think they are excellent, and these days I think the Loire whites are often the more interesting bottles. You get such regional variation: Mentou Salon often shows aromas of honeysuckle or melon, Vouvray has a fascinating minerality, Chinon whites aim for a dry,supple style, and Savvignieres truly tastes like a hint of sea spray reaches the vines!
Saumur whites are stylistically like Chinon whites… I really like what they do at La Manoir de la Tete Rouge, the Tete d’Ange white. Really amazing for the price point.
A very cool producer and winery is Marc Plouzeau. Under his own label the quality is similar to Olga Raffault, but he also bottles the Château de la Bonneliere Touraine Ante Phylloxera Clos de Maulevrier: a wine you kind of need to beg for and can only buy a bottle or two at a time, but fun to try, from pre-phylloxera vines that are really a single tangled vine in a monastery courtyard (which you cannot visit). Apparently the tangle originated as one vine, but is self rooted and by now is a unique grape patch that only Marc is permitted to harvest. The oldest of the ancient stems may be hundreds of years old. My guess is that these bottles need a decade or more to really show their stuff.
Did you read my article Ken? I recommended all of those producers. I would disagree that Charles Joguet is the “top of the top” but it’s very good for sure. I also disagree that Chinon can’t be great. “Great” is all relative
I was sharing my own options, not criticizing yours. Although I sincerely do feel that the area is more intellectually challenging and interesting for white wines and that the reds are much too similar to one-another.