Olga Raffault White vs Brown Label

Is there any difference between the white and brown labels for the Les Picasses?

I had a bottle of the 1989 with a white label and then purchased a couple more bottles of the same vintage, all of which have a brown label. Are those the same exact wine?

Funny, I’ve prolly had 100+ bottles of the Les Picasses, going back to the 1970s, and have never seen anything but the brown label. I’ve even had bottles from the 1980s, including 1989, while in Loire. Can you post a pic of the white label?

I shouldn’t worry, Andy, I’ve seen both - in fact, I remember the first 1990 I tried as having a white label. This thread has another example:

If it’s like most wineries in France, their old wines are stored without labels in the (probably moldy) cellar and labeled only on release. So it may be that they changed labels styles and, after a certain date, brown labels were applied to older wines. The vintage year is typically overprinted on the basic label. But that’s just a hunch.

Here’s a white label from a 1996 I’m pretty sure I bought on release from David Lillie at Garnet:

John’s speculation is, in fact, correct. Sometime after 02 (for reasons that must have made sense to me at the time, but I can no longer imagine, I didn’t buy any between 02 and 07, so I don’t know when precisely), they changed their label from white to brown. All those old vintages everybody posts on are probably their library releases, of which, praise be, or praise be Raffault and Dressner, there are many, and they have been relabeled. For vintages older than 90, I can’t speak from experience, but for the 90 and the 96, I can.

This. All of the old labels were white. The brown-label older vintages are to my knowledge all library releases since the label change.

I wonder, then, if my memory is faulty on the label color from the specific bottles that I had while in Loire. I was there in 1996.

The white label above is similar to the label for the Champ Chenin, yes?

Maybe someone in Europe knows if the old labels ex cellar were brown, and the white was for the US import market only. But it would surprise me given this was / is a smallish family operation. (My recollection is 1996 sold at retail in the US for around $14.99 or so on release.)

Thank you all, that answers my question!

I believe my library release had the white label '77 olga

damnit Marc, you are right, just went back and looked at the pics. The 77 had the white label, the 90 had the brown label, and the 93 Champ Chenin has the white.

My 1990s all have the brown label. So, based on the above discussion, mine are library releases?

I miss the white label!

That '77 is a gem

• 1977 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (12/25/2017)
  A beautiful old wine holding up quite well. It benefited from a one hour plus decant. The lighter side of Chinon in taste. The fruits are quite mellow and the forest floor and pig pen is gentle. It is unmistakenly Chinon. This was a joy to drink. I wouldn’t say it is dropping off, but probably in a flat line. My fear would be waiting too many more years will drop out the remaining fruit. I only see two on CT and one is my other, so this isn’t much of a PSA. Yes, I would rebuy. (93 pts.)

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