Cabernet Franc is a misunderstood grape, producing wines that run the gamut from lean, mean, and green to high octane powerhouses that are almost indistinguishable from its closest relative, Cabernet Sauvignon. In the Loire Valley the style is most often the former, but there are a select few who make wines that are a very happy, and delicious, medium between the extremes. Perhaps none do this better than Philippe Alliet. His Vieilles Vignes Chinon is perfectly balanced–showing richly textured fruit and weight but without heaviness or over extraction. It’s got a little Bordeaux, a hint of Napa, and a lot of top tier Loire, and the 70 plus year old vines give it exceptional depth and complexity. This is a reference-point wine in the appellation, from a powerful vintage. It is unquestionably a worthy choice for your cellar.
Traditional descriptors of the wines of Chinon, in France’s Loire Valley, did not typically contain words like “opulent” or “polished.” Chinon, along with its lesser-known neighbor, Bourgueil, is mostly known for cool-climate expressions of Cabernet Franc—crunchy, sometimes leafy-green reds that are bistro staples if not exactly cellar material. But to stereotype Chinon thusly is to ignore the ethereal, eminently age-worthy Chinons of producers such as Olga Raffault or Couly-Dutheil (to name just two), or the even “cultier” Cab Francs of Guiberteau and Clos Rougeard, in nearby Saumur. What all these wines share is a certain kinship with top-tier red Burgundy—the perfumes, the purity, the energy—but the Chinons of Philippe Alliet, particularly today’s “Vieilles Vignes” bottling, are something else. This 2020 takes us in another direction: namely, toward Bordeaux’s Right Bank. That’s not to say that it tastes like Bordeaux, but that it channels Bordeaux in both scale and polish. Yes, polish. There’s no green and no sharp edges, but instead deep concentration and velvety texture from old vines rooted in gravel. Most of the above-mentioned wines succeed by singing a crisp, clear soprano, and we love them for it; Alliet Chinon is a full-throated tenor, and we love that, too.
Most of the Alliet vineyards, now totaling about 18 organically farmed hectares in the village of Cravant-les-Coteaux, are in alluvial (i.e. gravelly) flatlands close to the Vienne River (which feeds into the Loire), but they’ve added sites up on the clay/limestone hillsides as well. Most of their plantings are of Cabernet Franc, and yields are kept fanatically low; Alliet is a regular visitor to Bordeaux and takes inspiration from its wines in crafting his own.
Alliet and his wife, Claude, have been collecting accolades in Chinon since 1983, when they took over the domaine from Philippe’s father. More recently, their son, Pierre, has joined the team, and they have continued to grow their reputation as meticulous farmers/vintners. The vineyards supplying fruit for this Vieilles Vignes 2020 are, as the name would suggest, old—about 70 years—and the hand-harvested grapes are completely de-stemmed (a contributor to the wine’s plush texture) before fermentation in cement vats. Aging for the Vieilles Vignes is increasingly done in cement tanks where previously used barrels were the standard.
In the glass the 2020 is a dense, opaque ruby with purple/black reflections. Rich and heady aromas of purple flowers complement a ripe mix of black and red fruits (black currant, mulberry, huckleberry). Always a generous wine, it is especially so in the powerful, warm 2020 vintage—medium-plus body with polished, fine-grained tannins. There’s that word again, polished: This isn’t a big, brawny red; it is rich, but also quite elegant and perfectly fresh. In every vintage Alliet’s take on Cabernet Franc tends to showcase more cigar-wrapper and umami-rich flavors as opposed to bell pepper/mint. There’s a beautiful push-pull of sweet and savory in this wine, with saturated fruit flavors vying for attention with a dark, loamy soil character. It definitely has the potential to age decades if kept well and I highly advise you to cellar as many bottles as possible to drink in 5-10+ years. It is, however, tantalizing to drink now after about 30 minutes in a decanter, served at 60-65 degrees in large Bordeaux stems. This is a really serious Loire Valley wine that will forever change your perception of what’s possible in Chinon.
