I was sitting in a small restaurant in the Loire Valley last
year and ordered a bottle of wine off the menu that was just labelled "Chinon". It turned out to be a Baudry-Dutour Chateau La Grille 2005 and it was stunning. This inspired me to hold a Chinon evening for
Tongham Tasters and when I found a wine retailer selling different years of one
of Olga Raffault’s cuveés it turned into a vertical tasting – a tasting of the same
wine from different years.
Chinon is a town in the Touraine region within the Loire
Valley. It stands on the River Vienne
and most of the vineyards occupy a triangle bordered on two sides by the Vienne
and the Loire. Some of the best wine comes
from around Cravant which is east of the town of Chinon where there is the
limestone tufa that produces the heavier age-worthy wines. Near the rivers are the sandy gravelly soils
that produce the lighter fruitier wines for drinking young. Most of Chinon is dedicated to Cabernet
Franc, which they turn into red wines or occasionally rosé. Many of the good growers are organic or biodynamic. A little Chenin Blanc is grown to produce
white wine. Similar red wines to those
of Chinon are grown to the north of the Loire river in Bourgeuil and Saint Nicolas
de Bourgeuil. Although most Chinon is
produced to be drunk young many are capable of lasting for many years. However, some hold the view that Chinons do
not improve with age. As we were trying
some from 1990 and 1998, would we agree?
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| Some vineyards in Chinon as seen from the castle |
The red wines of Chinon typically taste of raspberry, pencil
lead and tobacco leaf. Sometimes you
also get a barnyard taste that is often referred to as “bretty”. This is caused by the presence of a yeast
called brettanomyces. Some like the
complexity caused by the presence of this yeast whilst others regard it as
spoiling the fruitiness of the wine and view it as contamination. What would our tasting team think?
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| Chatting before the serious tasting begins |
Tonight we did not taste the wines blind and tasted in order
of age with the youngest wines coming first.
In all we tasted eight vintages with three of these being of the same
cuveé
and thus our first true vertical tasting.
The wines below are presented in descending order of preference. Scores are out of twenty and are presented in
the order of John E, Steve S, Sheila, Clive, Sarah, Ian, Kathryn and John
S. Jane and Yvonne also attended but did
not complete their sheets for all the wines.
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| Gouda, Brie and Goats cheese with figs - an excellent cheese board |
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| Lovely Ham & leek tarts |
We tasted the wines with food varying from duck spring rolls, ham and
cheese tarts and bread and cheese. The
ham and leek tarts were particularly delicious and were made by Chris who
couldn’t attend at the last moment – we missed you Chris and Andy but thanks for the cooking
Chris. Cheese was provided by Clive from
Secrett’s farm shop and was delicious and the bread was from the excellent
Tongham bakers shop. At the end we had
some of Ian’s lovely homemade raspberry icecream (from homegrown raspberrys)
served with Jane’s homemade almond butter and apple cookies. Jane also made some “raw food” red pepper and
flax seed crackers that I really liked (try her excellent
whyisthereair website
for her recipes using a Thermomix).
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| Clive taking the photos |
In order to taste all of the wines in top condition, I
decanted each wine into a clean jug, thus eliminating any deposits or sediment,
and then poured it vigorously into another clean jug to aerate. Finally, I cleaned each bottle and poured
back each wine into its respective original bottle. This system seemed to work well as all wines
were quite open and we avoided any sediment in the glass from the older
wines. It also ensured that the oak and
fruit were well integrated and eliminated some of the barnyard smells but also
perhaps took away some raspberry aromas that I admired as I was aerating them. The
2011 was served chilled and the 2005 slightly chilled.
1. Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses 1998, French Red,
12.5%,
RandB Wines £12.00
With half our tasting team voting this their favourite wine
of the evening, this was a fairly clear winner.
There was, however, one dissenter who voted it last. The reason it came first was that it was
complex, had lots of oak and good acidity and great length. It was quite light in colour and had a taste
of boiled sweets to some of us. Scores
were 16.5, 17.25, 12, 19, 12, 17, 13 and 17.
I look forward to enjoying the other two bottles I have of this vintage! Great value wine at £12.00.
Olga Raffault's wines truly are the Queens of Chinon.
2. Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses 1990, French Red,
12.5%, RandB Wines £25.00
Our oldest wine of the evening this tasted very similar to
the 1998 but was just shaded into second place as it got just two votes as the
top wine. Almost everyone had it in
their top three. This perhaps had slightly more of a barnyard hint to it than
the 1998 and there was the usual graphite and oak. It still looked relatively young and belied
its 22 years. Scores were 16, 16, 10,
18, 10, 17.5, 14 and 15.
With two top votes and most putting it in their top half of
the wines tasted this wine came closest to challenging Olga Raffault. Pierre-Jacques Druet is actually a top wine
maker in neighbouring Bourgeuil but has this parcel of land on the right bank
of the Vienne river in Beaumont en Veron.
This wine had a strawberry fruitiness mixed in with some oak and very
little if any barnyard. It was still red
with a faint brown tinge. Scores were
15, 13.75, 11, 17, 14, 14.5, 14 and 14.5.
Well worth a trip to Majestic to get some more of this.
4. Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses 2002, French Red
,12.5%, RandB Wines £14.00
Half our team voted this as their third favourite wine of
the night. This was a good wine with a
nice taste of vanilla from the oak and some barnyard as we found in all of the
Olga Raffault wines. Scores were 14.75,
14.5, 9, 17, 13, 10.5, 12 and 14.
5. Olga Raffault Chinon Les Barnabes 2005, French Red,
13.5%, RandB Wines £7.00
This wine was almost total barnyard in terms of nose and
taste but most of our team still enjoyed it.
It is the antithesis of a fruit driven wine and this is a wine you will
either love of hate. Five had it in
their bottom four and the other five had it in their top four wines. Scores were 12.5, 14.75, 9.5, 17, 12, 15, 12
and 13.5. This is a wine from Savigny en Veron on sand and gravel soils. Not a wine for the New World
lovers and suits chilling a little but good value if you like this type of
wine.
6. Couly-Dutheil Chinon La Closerie 2008, French Red, 13%,
Laithwaites £11.49
Nobody had this wine in their top half of the rankings but
nobody put in last place either.
Comments on the nose included compost and liquorice with some
vanilla. It was still young enough to
have a purple red colour. Scores were
13, 13.5, 8.5, 13, 10, 12.5, 12 and 12.5.
7. Wilfrid Rousse Chinon Cuvee Terroir 2009, French Red,
12.5%, Stone Vine and Sun £11.95
This purple coloured wine comes from a good year and was
richer than the other wine from Wilfrid Rousse but still quite thin. It was a
nice fruity wine. One person had it in
their top three but most had it sixth or seventh. Scores were 12.5, 13, 9, 12, 12, 13.5, 10 and13. This wine has been a gold medal winner but
didn’t over impress on our night against top competition.
Six of our team had this in last place but it was actually a
light and nice wine with good hints of raspberry. This is certainly a good wine to pair with
goat’s cheese. Scores were 11.5, 11, 8,
15, 9, 13.5, 9 and 9. Disappointing to
find this excellent producer at the bottom, I’ll have to find an excuse to
serve his top cuvee at another TT evening.
If you are interested in the wines of the Loire Valley, two
excellent websites are linked to below:
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| Another appellation uncorked by Tongham Tasters |
This was an interesting evening’s tasting. You can see from the results that there is a
surprising correlation between the age of the wine and its placing; we seemed
to enjoy the older wines and perhaps this means that Chinon does improve with
age, although there were no noticeable tannins to soften over the years. Another theory was that we served
the older wines with cheese and this was a better match. You
don’t tend to find good Chinon on the supermarket shelves but there are many
good on line and specialist retailers waiting to sell you a good bottle. On the basis of this tasting we should be
drinking them more. They are great food wines and relatively low in alcohol
compared to those from further south.
Thanks to the catering team and Kathryn for organising them
so well. Thanks to everyone who came and
made for another excellent Friday night both in terms of appreciating the wine
and the sparkling conversation and bad jokes!
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| Tongham Taster passing a bottle of Olga Raffault to the other tasters |
Our next outing is to Farnborough in December for our
Christmas party that Ian and Kathryn are organising. They promise to serve us seven or eight
drinks that represent Christmas from around the World. Should be fun and we will be taking a taxi
from Tongham if you want to join us. It
is at 8pm on Friday December 14
th.
Give John a call on 07717 876743 or
email
tonghamtaster@gmail.com if
you want to join us. Our events are a
good way of tasting wines you might never otherwise taste (such as a
1983 Chablis or a 1990 Chinon for instance) and getting an understanding that you
can’t get by reading or tasting alone (this evening we all got to understand
what “Bretty” meant for instance and whether we liked it or not). We welcome newcomers so give us a call and
join our tasting team.
We return to Tongham in the New Year for Clive's Sauvignon Blancs from around the World - a must for white wine lovers on Friday January 11th at 8pm in Poyle Road.
Further details of our fun wine tasting events can be found
by
clicking on wine circle at the top of this post.
Tonight's wines all came from specialist wine retailers rather than supermarkets - its a good way to buy wines, you get god advice, an interesting choice and often great value! I really like Stone Vine and Sun in Twyford - they have an interesting selection of wines especially from the Rhone Valley and Languedoc. A really different light and fruity Rhone wine is their 2011 Cuvee des Galets at just under £8. They have some interesting Bordeaux, Faugeres and Minervois as well. RandB wines also has some interesting wines especially if you like some older vintages.
Thanks to Clive for his excellent photos of the evening as usual. Here are his photos of some of our tasters and their different pouring styles!
Keep smiling and we'll see you all again soon!
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