Chinon Les Peuilles

France
Loire
2019

100% Cabernet Franc. Like the more renowned Les Picasses, Les Peuilles is a lieu-dit close to the village of Beaumont-En-Véron, but it is to the south of town, closer to the Vienne river. It is a plateau rather than a hillside and features soils of clay and flint rather than limestone. The fruit is organically farmed and hand-harvested and destemmed without crushing. The whole berries are fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tank, with a shorter maceration compared to that of Picasses. Aging takes place in 70-hectoliter oak and chestnut foudres for 6-12 months, with another year or two in bottle before release. 

93 points
"The 2019 Chinon “les Peuilles” from Domaine Olga Raffault is nicely low octane in this vintage, coming in at a svelte 12.5 percent octane. As I have mentioned in the past, these vines are planted close to the Vienne River on clay and flint soils, with the wine raised for one year in chestnut foudres and a second year in stainless steel prior to bottling. The 2019 les Peuilles offers up a deep and classy nose of black cherries, cassis, tree bark, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, 25 espresso and plenty of smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of black fruit, good soil signature and grip, ripe, seamless tannins and fine length and grip on the youthful finish. This will be a lovely wine once it has had a bit of cellaring time to soften up its backend tannins. 2029-2075+."
John Gilman,
View From The Cellar
September 2023

SKU/Code: 
DB2973-19
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Cabernet Franc
Farming Type: 
Organic