Chinon "La Singulière"

Raffault, Domaine Olga
France
Loire
2014

100%  Cabernet Franc. "La Singulière" comes from a single Picasses parcel named Vaux, with 40-year-old vines that are certified organic and on limestone-rich clay soils like all of their Picasses holding. The yield is kept to 35hl/ha.  The wine starts out being made identically to the Picasses bottling: the bunches are destemmed with the berries left whole and fermented with indigenous yeasts in tank; the maceration is similar at about a month. La Singulière is the only Raffault wine to be aged in smaller oak vessels, specifically 500-liter tonneaux on the newer side (from 1-5 years of previous use) vs. the quite old and large 30-hectoliter foudres for Picasses. After two years in wood, the wine is bottled without fining or filtering. 2014 is the current vintage (and a first-time import for Louis/Dressner and Bowler). 

93 points
"I tasted the 2014 Chinon “la Singulière” from Domaine Raffault a year ago as well. Readers may recall that this is a special bottling from the estate, made from a filet section of their holdings in the vineyard of les Picasses and aged in oak puncheons that range from one to five years of age, rather than in the older foudres that most Domaine Raffault wines receive their élevage. The bouquet is beautiful, showing a gentle influence of oakiness from its élevage in puncheons, delivering scents of dark berries, black cherries, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, plenty of smokiness, juniper berries and a nice touch of nutty oak. On the palate the wine is bright, fullbodied, focused and complex, with lovely depth at the core, fine focus and balance and a long, classy and gently oaky finish. This still needs a bit more bottle age before it starts to drink with generosity on the backend of the palate, but in due course this is going to be an excellent wine. 2029-2065. "
John Gilman,
View from the Cellar
September 2023
92+ points
"The 2014 Chinon La Singulière is based on the fruit from small yields in the oldest clay-limestone parcels of the domaine as well as a careful barrel selection after two to three years of aging. The wine opens pure and fresh but also quite toasty on the dark-toned, ethereal and elegant nose that reveals fir and forest floor aromas. Round, refined and very elegant on the palate, with liver flavors as well as a certain animal reduction, this is a full-bodied and tight yet juicy Chinon with fine tannins and an elegant freshness that will develop over the years in the bottle. Yet again, this doesn't yet kick me as much as the other cuvées of the domaine. Tasted in April 2021."
Stephan Reinhardt,
Wine Advocate
August 2021

SKU/Code: 
DB3798-14
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Cabernet Franc
Farming Type: 
Organic