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Olga Raffault, Chinon, ‘Les Picasses’

Loire Valley, France 2011 (750mL)
$25.00
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Fruit
Earth
Body
Tannin
Acid
Alcohol

Olga Raffault, Chinon, ‘Les Picasses’

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 reputation as one of the most outstanding and consistent in the appellation.
10-year verticals of Raffault Chinon grace top wine lists around the world, and most sommeliers, wine writers, and collectors would agree that this is a timeless, 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 bottles reach the 15 to 20-year mark, they triple and quadruple in value. Better yet, this shockingly affordable 2011 vintage is an exciting and effortless 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. So, drink it now or save it as an ever-appreciating blue chip investment. It’s a win-win!
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 and classic approach that has drawn generations of sommeliers and collectors to the family’s wines. There is nothing modern or trendy about Raffault—this is Old School wine. Grapes at the estate are farmed without herbicides or pesticides, then hand picked and fermented in whole clusters without destemming. The resulting wine is transferred to large, ancient, neutral oak barrels for aging until bottling, and then more years of aging until release. The American market is flooded with rushed 2015 Chinon right now, but Raffault does everything at a slow, even pace and releases often lag three, four, or even ten years behind neighboring properties. We applaud this patient, deliberate approach and the timeless wines it produces.

This bottling comes from one of Chinon’s top crus, Les Picasses in the hamlet of Savigny-en-Véron. Particularly in 2011, this vineyard’s location is vitally important. 2011 was a confusing vintage wherein flat, low-lying, early ripening vineyards that hug the Vienne River produced middling wine, while Chinon’s top hillside crus offered some of the best wines of the decade. Les Picasses is one of the winners. This steeply sloped parcel of alluvial clay with chalky limestone base is home to a gorgeous collection of 60+-year-old Cabernet Franc vines. In 2011, Les Picasses produced a beautifully dense and complex wine, with the stuffing and energy to steward it through decades of cellar aging.  

The 2011 Dom. Olga Raffault Chinon “Les Picasses” is true blue, classic Chinon. Aromas of currant, plum skin, and huckleberry hide in the cracks between wet stone, green tobacco leaf, graphite, gunpowder and white pepper. The wine has medium body, with tightly grained layers of tannin and acid which will soften beautifully over time. Right now in its youth, this is not a soft or cuddly wine. Young, traditionally styled Chinon is crunchy, peppery and fresh by definition. It’s a savory, lip-smacking burst of energy that is the perfect tool to cut through a hamburger or fatty bistro steak. And while I never begrudge anyone the immediate and invigorating pleasure of enjoying a young bottle, we still stress that this 2011 is going to improve dramatically for the next 2 or 3 decades. The magic of Raffault “Les Picasses” is that counterintuitively, the wines seem to become fatter and more fruit driven over the decades. As time unwinds the tightly coiled mineral layers, the wines blossom in both body and aroma. Even recent “off” vintages like 1993 or 2001 of Raffault that we’ve opened have been memorable stunners. This 2011 is a true “Vin de Garde” and those who can summon the patience to set aside six bottles in the coldest corner of their cellar will be forever rewarded.
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Country
France
Region
Loire Valley
Sub-Region
FranceChinon
Soil
Limestone and Clay
Farming
Organic
Blend
Cabernet Franc
Alcohol
12.5
OAK
Neutral

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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