WTN: 2006 Charles Joguet Chinon Les Varennes du Grand Clos

2006 Charles Joguet Chinon Les Varennes du Grand Clos 13.5%
Inky deep purple, reminiscent of Ian Gillian and Ritchie Blackmore. Dark, ripe cherry aromas, with leather, funk. Surprisingly tannic, quite high acid, yet the body is (somewhat incongruously) on the lighter side, making a less than fully harmonious ensemble. While the structure falls into place with food, something serious and inscrutable remains that stands in the way of (this) early enjoyment. Maybe that's winemaking honesty, or maybe it just misses Joguet's touch. I enjoyed it, but perhaps this wasn't the right moment to drink it.

Maybe that's winemaking honesty...

You mean too honest to get the fruit in line with the tannins. Sure, I guess 'honest' is one word for that.

Did it change much with air? I have no idea how these wines are drinking now but does sound like a potentially shut down wine.

Didn't really last long enough to have a chance to change with air. Maybe it was a little shut down, but it seemed more a matter of (current) disequilibrium between tannins and body than any actual muteness.

Oswaldo, I think that 2006 is a bit too young for Les Varennes du Grand Clos to be showing its best. 1995 and 1996 only started singing after about 8 years, my 2000s are still buried in a pile and the 2004s are marked for holding some more.

That said I thought that Les Varennes showed less well than La Dioterie and Le Chêne Vert in a line up of Joguet 06s about a year ago with wood and wood tannin notes being then too prominent. Commercial Manager, Jacques Genet, explained this as being due to the phasing out of older barrels in the search for elimination of "animal" notes. Personally I think that losing of bit of brett flavour at the price of a lot of wood is a bad bargain.

I thought that Les Varennes showed less well than La Dioterie and Le Chêne Vert in a line up of Joguet 06s about a year ago with wood and wood tannin notes being then too prominent. Commercial Manager, Jacques Genet, explained this as being due to the phasing out of older barrels in the search for elimination of "animal" notes. Personally I think that losing of bit of brett flavour at the price of a lot of wood is a bad bargain.

I would think that a bad bargain too, but after a year, there was almost no wood showing in ours.

Sometimes I wonder how homogeneously wineries blend their lots!