Domaine de Pallus Chinon Les Pensees de Pallus 2016
-
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine, which used to be the assembly of various plots, becomes a terroir wine that provides a stunning and undeniably dense mouth-feel. The quality of this sandy, calcareous soil, its exposition to hours of sunlight on the hill and the wine making procedures make Les Pensées de Pallus the “premier cru” of the Domaine.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Chinon Les Pensées de Pallus is an impressive Cabernet that opens with an intense, very elegant and refined bouquet with minty notes and olive aromas spicing the noble, dark and elegant fruit. Silky, fresh and elegant on the palate, this is a full-bodied, smooth and charming yet also very concentrated, intense and structured Chinon with a juicy but also tight and tannic finish that might become a bit dry with age. Matured in Burgundian barrels for 12 months and another six months in béton cuves, this is a vital and stimulating effort from Bertrand and one of my favorites of this domain. Tasted in June 2021. "Due to spring frost, 2016 was a disaster in the valley, but in the coteaux, I was lucky to see my fruit surviving. To me, 2016 is like 1996, 2006 and 2012. The acidity and balance are formidable. I consider it a rather feminine vintage, very delicate and intelligent, and everything is built up on this beautiful acidity," says Bertrand Sourdais.
Other Vintages
2018-
James
Suckling
-
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling
-
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker
-
Wine
Spectator
-
Wine
Spectator
-
Wine
Spectator
-
Wine
Spectator
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