Chinon Les Picasses

2016
Raffault, Domaine Olga
France
Loire

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Picasses is the most famous Chinon lieu-dit, close to the village of Beaumont-En-Véron on the north bank of the Vienne River. It is a slope with full southern exposure and chalky clay-limestone soils. Raffault's mid-slope vines are at least 50 years old and are worked organically and harvested by hand. The fruit is destemmed with the berries left whole; they are fermented with indigenous yeasts in tank with a maceration of 25-30 days. The wine is aged for one to two years in 30-hectoliter oak and chestnut foudres; it is then aged in bottle for several years before release.

94 points
"The 2016 vintage of Chinon “les Picasses” from Domaine Olga Raffault is the current release of this cuvée from the domaine and it is absolutely marvelous. He Raffault vines in les Picasses are all at least fifty years of age and the wine is aged in large, old foudres of oak and chestnut prior to bottling, and then given bottle aging in the cellars before release. The 2016 comes in at 12.5 percent octane and offers up a beautiful, classic nose of cassis, dark berries, tree bark, menthol, cigar wrapper, chalky soil tones, a hint of meatiness and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core of fruit, excellent transparency and grip, ripe, buried tannins and a long, well-balanced and very promising finish. At six years of age, this is still a fairly young wine, and though it is certainly approachable today, its apogee is still several years in the future! Fine, fine juice. 2022-2065+."
John Gilman,
View from the Cellar
93 points
"From a limestone-based plot on the Chinon plateau, the 2016 Chinon Les Picasses features intriguing warming spices, including garam masala, as well as piquant black cherry, all followed up with mouthwatering acidity. Like their other cuvées, it's not showy and extroverted but quiet, its joy being in its tender caress on the midpalate. It has grown up in large foudres (50hl) over a year but reveals little woody influence. The finish has fine sinew and refined chalky tannins that draw the palate out on the lengthy, tea-leaf-like and spiced finish."
Rebecca Gibb,
Vinous
August 2021

SKU/Code: 
DB8974-16
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Cabernet Franc
Farming Type: 
Organic