Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Chinon Les Varennes du Grand Clos Franc de Pieds comes from the foot of a gravelly terrace in Sazilly (on the left bank of the Vienne River) that was partly formed by the erosion of the limestone hillside. The vineyard has a very special silica-clay and calcareous terroir and was planted between 1962 and 1976. Aged in new to four-year-old French barrels for 15/16 months and another six months in vat, the 2018 offers a deep, pure, intense and fine bouquet of dark fruits, crushed stones and lemons as well as raw meat. Silky fresh and elegant on the first palate, this is a concentrated, fleshy and firmly structured Cabernet Franc with an impressive bead of mineral acidity and ripe, crunchy tannins that give energy and tension and a long and intense finish. This is a great Chinon for cellaring even though it already tastes impressively. This is an absolutely juicy Cabernet Franc that I'd age for at least 5-10 years, just to be amazed.
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