With zero hesitation, I will call this 2015 Olga Raffault Chinon one of the single greatest red wine values ever offered on this site, period. Furthermore, you can take my word that the best is yet to come—modest price and bright, forward style notwithstanding, this wine will age for a decade with ease. Regardless of who you ask, Olga Raffault will be listed at or near the top of the list of world’s-best Cabernet Francs.
It’s a timeless classic that offers something for everyone: deep, savory aromatics for classic Bordeaux lovers; 3-D soil character and electric red fruit for Burg-hounds; and it’s all married together with aromatics and an invigorating energy on the palate that can only come from this small hillside a few hours south of Paris. There are three things that make this offer extra special, though. First, this is a truly shocking bargain at $22. Second, the superlative 2015 vintage has produced a exceptionally generous and young-drinking expression of Chinon; these wines are great in cooler vintages but they are absolutely mind-blowing in a near-perfect year like 2015. Finally, we are the only retailer west of the Mississippi to have access to this brilliant wine.
Twice a year we receive a small allocation of Olga Raffault’s wines and every time we offer them, they sell out. Our customers absolutely love Raffault and it’s no surprise: this is about as good as Cabernet Franc gets. There are many producers in Chinon but Raffault has earned a singular reputation for quality and consistency in the appellation. Ten-year verticals of Raffault Chinon grace top Michelin-starred wine lists around the world, and most sommeliers, wine writers and collectors would agree that this is a truly timeless and region-defining estate. We also like to stress that Raffault Chinon is as close to a bankable, “sure thing” investment as exists in wine—once these wines hit the 15- to 20-year mark, they triple and quadruple in value. The unprecedentedly low price of this 2015 vintage is a risk-free, no-brainer opportunity to begin or continue to grow your very own cellar vertical. So while this bottle has numerous decades of maturation and improvement ahead, today it is perfectly delicious straight from the bottle. Whether you’re drinking it today or stashing it away, there is simply no way to lose with Raffault Chinon.
Though Olga Raffault passed away a few years ago, her granddaughter, Sylvie, is carrying on the family’s impressive farming and winemaking legacy. Sylvie stays faithful to the traditional style. There is nothing modern or trendy about Raffault—this is Old School wine. Grapes at the estate are farmed with no herbicides or pesticides, then hand-picked and fermented in whole clusters with no destemming. The resulting wine is transferred to large, ancient, neutral oak barrels for aging until bottling, and then more years of aging until release. This bottling is a Chinon take on a “village” wine, incorporating several different vineyard sources. The generosity and warmth of 2015 brings this vineyard’s gravel and limestone terroir to life with a vivacity and depth I haven’t encountered since 2005. This is a special, once-per-decade vintage for this wine.
This 2015 shows off the generosity of the vintage in both its deep purple and density of fruit on the nose. The nose exhibits lots of black raspberry, black plum, mulberry, damp violet, graphite, underbrush, green herbs, mushrooms, crushed white rocks and even a little cassis. The wine shows no perceptible oak influence: it’s all about pure, fragrant fruit, mineral savor, enlivening acidity, and quite velvety tannins. It is superbly balanced wine, considerably more fruit-driven and with a longer, more fragrant finish than your typical bistro Chinon. While it is supremely drinkable now after about 30 minutes in a decanter, I can see this aging 10+ years with ease (don’t be fooled by its relativelty light tannins; the acid and balance of this wine are what will preserve it; Raffault wines have a sterling track record for aging). Crack a bottle soon and serve it at 60 degrees in Burgundy stems; it will pair well with foods you might otherwise serve with Pinot Noir, including chicken and fish. Check it out with
this “quick” Coq au Vin recipe, or really anything: I can’t think of anything this wine wouldn’t go with. Cheers!
