Domaine de Noire Chinon Soif de Tendresse Rouge 2008
-
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Chinon Soif de Tendresse leads me to believe that the 2008 vintage is ideally suited to a red in this style designed as it is for maximum enjoyment and refreshment when drunk slightly cool at the earliest possible post-bottling date (not that you won’t be able to enjoy it for the next 9-12 months). Essence of fresh, juicy, tart blackberries tinged with ginger, pepper, salt, and thyme inform the nose and a palate of vibratory energy and exhilarating invigoration in the finish such as one seldom encounters in a red wine. Subtle suggestions of peat and nut oils add some mystery and richness to the finish, treble and extroverted though it is. You will find myriad occasions and uses for this.
Other Vintages
2009-
Robert
Parker
Manceau and his wife Odile care for just over 20 acres of vineyards in Chinon, a region that sits at the crossroads of the Loire and Vienne rivers. It's hard not to be infected by their combined enthusiasm for Cabernet Franc—these are very dedicated artisans (albeit hobbyists—Manceau runs a larger property as his "job") who seek above all to capture the purest expression of this native varietal.
The domaine draws its name from a legendary neighboring vineyard, "Clos de Noire." This high-altitude plot is renowned in the Loire for its alabaster soils, rich in minerals and chalk. It's the same sort of porous rock one can find in Champagne, and more immediately, in the walls and towers of the Loire's breathtaking chateaus.
Manceau's Cabernet Franc vines, on average 60 to 70 years old, share similar soils as "Clos de Noire." This great terroir, a combination of gravel and chalk, is ideal for Cabernet Franc. Manceau's "Cuvée Elegance," a 100% Cabernet Franc wine, is both full-bodied and fresh, with characteristic notes of violets and flint in the nose. Manceau also crafts a rare, 100% Cabernet Franc rosé, vinified completely in tank.
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
An important red wine appellation in the Touraine district of the Loire, Chinon produces fanciful, light-bodied reds from the Cabernet Franc grape. Chinon also makes charming rosés from the same grape as well as white wines from Chenin blanc. But the reds give the area its fame. Often scented with fresh herbs, black tea and violets, Chinon reds show a lovely combination of fruit and acidity. However, styles have become more concentrated and ripe in recent years from improvements in vineyard management. Modern methods include planting grass between vineyard rows, using higher trellises and deleafing to increase sunlight to berries and therefore improve ripening. Even still, red Chinon is intended to be a light to medium bodied, refreshing wine to be enjoyed in its youth.
Fuller-bodied Chinons come from vineyard sites on the clay and tuffeau limestone slopes, usually from the southern exposed slopes of Cravant-les-Coteaux, and the plateau above Beaumont. Lighter styled wines come from the sand and gravel vineyards near the Loire or Vienne Rivers with the most refined examples coming from the area around Panzoult