92 points
"The 2020 Chinon Blanc “Chenin des Picasses” from Domaine Olga Raffault is the first vintage ever produced of this parcel of Chenin Blanc planted at the top of the slope in the famed vineyard of les Picasses. The wine is fermented and raised in two and three year-old, five hundred liter demi-muids and does not go through malolactic. The wine offers up a lovely and refined bouquet of lemon, sweet quince, chalky soil tones, orange zest, beeswax and just a whisper of vanillin oak from the older casks. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied and complex, with good, but not great depth at the core, lovely soil inflection, a fine spine of acidity and lovely length on the well balanced and classy finish. These are still young vines, so the mid-palate amplitude in the 2020 is not what vintages ten years down the line will sport, but this is an excellent wine that will age long and gracefully. A fine new addition to the Raffault lineup! 2023-2050. "
View From The Cellar
September 2023