Dom. Pierre Breton Bourgueil Les Galichets 2005

Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley is finally receiving long overdue respect. Remarkably juicy, textured, versatile with food, and immensely age worthy, the Cabernet Franc wines of Bourgueil, Chinon, Saumur and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil are both a traditional staple and a rediscovered rage on the Paris bistro/wine bar scene. Chief among the best Loire red winemakers is Pierre Breton (whose last name is also the name for Cabernet Franc in the local dialect).

This wine comes from small yields of 32 hectoliters/hectare and is bottled unfiltered. Les Galichets has lovely fresh fruit, the palate plump and harmonious, and there is definite minerally personality in it, delicately rendered. Old vines in a gravel soil, that explains it.