Reduction can often manifest itself as a sort of high toast new oak effect.
Except that strictly speaking, neither are Chinon. I’m anxiously awaiting my 2014 Rougeard allocation, so thanks for the looksee. Advanced word is that there is more wine available and fewer takers but we shall see. No word yet that I’ve heard on whether there are price increases.
True, true. May bad. I tend to use “Chinon” a bit generically for Loire CF. Need to stop that.
In terms of availability, do you mean Rougeard specifically? I would not be surprised given the price and the current state of the economy. I’ve recently been offered more from two different sources. There was a price bump for the 2014, and the pricing across the spectrum ranged dramatically. For example, I was offered 2014 Rougeard Les Poyeaux from $225 to $350. I bit on some at the lower range. Le Bourg was offered at $350, I passed but immediately regretted it. Have not seen it again at that price. And that was pre-Covid shutdown.
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Super cool. I emailed Marc Plouzeau directly and he kindly responded:
The clos de Maulevrier in a very little plot I produce usually 800 liters on it
So we use oak barril between 400 to 600 liters of 4 or 5 years old for fermentation and ageing
The ageing is about 24 month
In fact, it’s just a very traditional way of making wine. So we use oak barril because I think it’s the good way for this wine
At the end, we mustn’t have taste of the oak but an idea of a long ageing
This is consistent with what I had read before, but could not recall the source. I never detected new oak or an omnipresent oak note on this wine, but again, that’s just my palate.
This wine is a major winner for me, and an annual 6-pack. The less expensive cuvees are great values and daily drinkers.
Cool. Thanks for doing that and posting the response, Robert. I’m now wondering if Tom was on to something re: the reduction-as-oak thing. Have you, or anybody reading here, found these wines to be reductive? I’ve typically associated reduction with stinkier smells, so this concept of reduction presenting like high toast new oak is quite interesting to me.
I note that I drank both the '12 and '13 over 2 days, and – for both of them – the “oak” did noticeably recede, but not disappear, on Day 2 — reduction can certainly behave like that. I now wonder if the “oak” would have disappeared completely had I waited until Day 3 or Day 4.
Bumping this back up, grabbed a few of the 2015 Plouzeau today form the PA state store at a decent price. Anyone with more recent experience?
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Nice to know that there are still bottles available in the Stateside!
If anyone needs help in PA, feel free to PM me…
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The Gods shined light on this poor wine aficionado, making some of this old Franc de Pied Cabernet Franc - allegedly from vintages of up to 150+ years old - available to me again. My allocation has been cut in half to three but that’s fine as well. Just happy to get it.
Such a classic Loire CF. Archetype nose of dry earth, tobacco leaves, brambly red fruits. Subtle green notes, but complementary to the point, that I do not want to use the word pyrazine, since it appears to be such a pejorative for people. The palate is lithe, very transparent, soil to glass, red fruits and citrus fruits. Love the buzzy, grainy minerality in this wine. It’s like the essence of a river flow over a rocky bed. Amazingly on day two it has picked up more weight, and more savory notes. Some salinity and herbs to complement the fruits. The finish remains crisp, still a lot of structure in this wine to resolve, acids over tannins. As they do, I am envisioning this wine really broadening on the savory scale. The trajectory from where I started with this one yesterday evening to where it is tonight on the second night impels that conclusion.
(93+ pts.)
@Julian_Marshall will love this!
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Was this the Franc de Pied?
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Thanks, even better posting within the context of this thread other than the fact I may have been asleep at the wheel last year re: the PLCB.
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Never actually came in…one of those PLCB special orders that doesn’t get fulfilled…
The sad part is I may have tried to order too.
Edit: while at least they didn’t ruin a good wine.
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I am sure to love this indeed - thanks for giving me such a good idea of what it will taste like! I only have a couple, I think.
I opened the 2012 last week - coming on nicely but still a baby!
Popped another one, here we are about a year and a half later. This is a flat out gorgeous wine. It has some elegance to it. It has some rusticity to it. Such a fascinating juxtaposition. The texture of this wine is unreal. Classic Chinon. As good as Loire Cab Franc gets. Structure and depth to age. I do not have the mental acuity tonight - ok I’m being lazy - to match my prior note. It’s all there! (94+ pts.)
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Yes sir!
FYI - I picked up a bottle of the 2017 at the tasting cave in Chinon in September. Needed to ask for the wine and the woman was very coy and hesitant to even discuss the wine, even though I was tasting and buying other things. Once I started chatting about my previous visit and the 2015s I bought and have tasted, she warmed up and let me buy one bottle (which was the limit). Up to 60 Euro/bottle now. For reference, I paid 28 Euro/bottle for the 2015 and was able to buy several.
As an aside, the 2019 Plouzeau L’Integrale Lieux Dit Vindoux (vines planted in 1929) and 2020 Chapelle (50 year old vines) were excellent, but are very structured wines with darker fruit. Would benefit from many years in the cellar (I drank the wines over several days during my week in the Loire).
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