There is a pretty profound generational shift going on in wine right now. For one thing, no longer is the “biggest” wine always considered to be the best; some of the trendiest reds these days are decidedly lighter and brighter in style—from Cru Beaujolais to northern Italian oddities like Schiava to Pinot Noir from everywhere.
Another shift is in the way we drink wine: It’s an everyday beverage for many more people now, as common a sight on the table as salt and pepper shakers. We’ve become more ‘Euro’ in our wine-drinking habits, which has led to a hearty embrace of what the French call ‘vin de soif’ (‘wine for thirst’). This is a term (and a concept) to add to your wine arsenal, if you haven’t already. This wine from husband-and-wife team Lydie and Thierry Chancelle is the quintessential vin de soif—energetic, quenching, lip-smacking wine that disappears quickly—but it is also a real wine of place. This is an aromatically complex, varietally pure Loire Valley red—gutsy, delicious, and ridiculously affordable.
In the glass, the Chancelle 2014 Saumur-Champigny is a bright ruby red moving to magenta at the rim, while the aromatic profile showcases Cabernet Franc at its prettiest: red berries right off the bush, red currant, cranberry, rose petals, and violets are followed by a whiff of tobacco and tar. On the palate it is light- to medium-bodied, with supple tannins and juicy fruit. This is a buoyant, eminently drinkable red wine, very much a candidate for the ice chest along with the beers—serve it slightly chilled in Bordeaux stems with some suitably delicious but un-fancy bistro food: check it out with this recipe for pork with prunes, a dish you’d definitely see in Loire Valley Cab Franc country.