I have a growing affinity for Chinon… have had Baudry and Breton from this decade, and a 2002 Couly Dutheil. The Breton and Couly Dutheil really opened my eyes.
This was my first Raffault. We were at Pearl & Ash in NYC, and knew we wanted to try something with some age on it. Were going back and forth between this and the '89.
Consider my mind blown. This is really what makes drinking (and sharing, and learning about!) wine so much fun.
1985 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses- France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (7/29/2016)
Straight out of the gate, this bottle was ready to go. So amazingly vibrant and alive. Nose was teeming with tobacco and a bit of ash. Palate was more of the same… just a touch of tannins remaining and nice acidity.
We enjoyed this over a couple of hours… towards the end the nose shifted from primarily tobacco to ash. How wonderful!!!
1985 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses- France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (1/31/2016)
Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms. The earth coming out of this wine is just marvelous. The fruit is gentle. The tannins left long ago. Just a beautiful wine, bricking, light on its feet, easy, mature, lovely with chinon as the delivery. This is drinking well now. I don’t think it is improving or declining at this point, but I’d drink the remainder over the next five years so by 2021 or so. Cork came out in a clean gentle and steady pull. Enjoy. (94 pts.)
Nice notes, guys.
I love how these mid-80s are showing now.
Been itching to get at my stash, but summer in the south just isn’t cab franc weather for me.
Soon.
Does this mean that I am going to have to wait 20 years to drink my magnum of 2007 that I bought so that I could have a little of everything in my cellar in case of the apocalypse?
You drinking Chinon is the sign of the apocalypse?!
I have found the '07 rather approachable. I do not think it becomes an 85, 89 or 90. I bought quite a lot of the '07 and like it, but have been blowing through it.
1985 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses- France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (2/11/2017)
Pig pen forest floor all over the nose. Inhale pepper spice. Slight sweet fruits remain. Stunning cab franc delivery. Chalky, chewy, subtle. This is chinon at its best. Excellent. This has at least five years (2022+) of lovely drinking, probably more. Wow. (95 pts.)
The '07 out of 750ml is beautiful now and I don’t see why the magnum would be substantially different. (I just restocked the '07 today.) It’s a great vintage if you aren’t a diehard Loire loyalist and prefer wines with a little more richness.
There is no better bang 4 the buck than loire cab franc…the land where you can drink world class franc for $30 and under… Piggybacking on Alfert…the '07 Olga is great stuff now and under 30 bones.
I have been drinking 2013 Jean Raffault Galuches and 2014 C. Breton Trinch…these r $17-20…and they freaking rock. Looking forward to more notes
I misframed that. I don’t know what the character of the vintage is, but the '07 Picasses has pretty ripe fruit and relatively low acid, so a good vintage for people who may be put off by some red Loires.
That makes more sense. Maybe what is often referred to as a “forward” vintage, like in Burgundy that year, where the wines were approachable young. Or at least for that wine. I only started buying Loire reds and paying attention with the '08 vintage, but my recollection was not one of richness. FWIW '08 was a rather lean year but I’ve had some very nice '08s in the past year that seem quite friendly and approachable.
I ran into those library releases a couple of times in the US but never in Europe, despite searching hard. I’ve asked the domaine whether they could help me locate some and, lo and behold, they sell the 85, 89 and 90 ex-cellar for about eur 45 and per bottle (a bit more for the 85). Got a 12-pack of each vintage. Sweet.
![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}