2005 Chinon Les Granges Bernard Baudry Loire Valley France. 13% alcohol. Imported by Louis/Dressner Selections, New York NY. http://www.louisdressner.com Asimov/Chambers/Lyle Purchased from Chambers Street: $15.00. 100% Cabernet Franc.
Dark red color, medium hue, lovely aromas of very good fruit with earth and spice notes, some chocolate and coffee, excellent pure fruit tastes supported by earth and chocolate notes, bit of herbaceousness, but very pretty nonetheless, medium moth feel, smooth tannins, long finish with very good fruit, spice, earth and chocolate notes. Delicious. 4*.
My purpose in collecting the two cases of Asimov/Lyle wines was to learn something new about each wine, and this second bottle from the cases hit a home run just like the first one did. I haven't really drunk much Chinon since 1999, when I reviewed all the Chinons I had tasted, as well as the comments by a number of commentators on Chinon (notes appended below). Somehow I decided that Chinons were just too herbaceous and not rewarding, at least for drinking when the wines are young. Boy, this bottle was a revelation: some Chinon is not only meant to be consumed young, but it is delicious -- at least the Baudry editions. Great stuff.
Regards, Bob
Notes: Dressner on Baudry: http://www.louisdressner.com/Baudry/ "Baudry’s style exemplifies rich, precise fruit picked at perfect ripeness levels and vinified cleanly using state-of-the-art equipment. The first release and most youthful wine is the Les Granges. This is from young vines (10-15 years old) planted on alluvial soil and gravel near the riverbed. When the Vienne river floods in some springs, Baudry may be found pruning the vines from a boat. This is a wine that is supple and fruity with smoky cherry fruit and is meant to drink young. It is a perfect wine for simple foods and cheeses."
Matt Kramer: CHINON "LES GRANGES" 2004, DOMAINE BERNARD BAUDRY Before diving into the particularities of this compellingly beautiful red wine from the Loire Valley, let's give credit where it's due. This wine is available to us not only because Bernard Baudry is an unusually dedicated winegrower who has spurned the slacker mentality so regrettably common to many of his Chinon confrères, but because he has an equally committed importer in Louis/Dressner Selections. We tend to take the importer of producers such as Mr. Baudry for granted. After all, importing isn't quite the same artistic effort as winegrowing. But the eternal parental plea, "Do you think money grows on trees?" can be invoked for finding artisanal wine producers as well. Wines such as this don't just appear on the shelves thanks to the touch of Tinker Bell's magic wand. Somebody's got to find them and schlep them.
That somebody in this case is a fellow named Joe Dressner, who shepherds the production of several dozen mostly French producers to America. His portfolio reflects a zealous commitment to artisanal wines. You could do worse than to find your wine way through his particular lens. As for Domaine Bernard Baudry, in 2004 Mr. Baudry created a succulent, drink-now Chinon crafted entirely from cabernet franc, the traditional red grape of the district. This is an unusually rich, ripe-tasting Chinon, almost devoid of the herbal-vegetal weediness that afflicts so many Loire Valley reds. The locals insist that it's the cool climate, but too often it's a function of overcropped vineyards and too-early harvesting. That's not an issue here.
Ross on Chinon -- from late 1999:
1996 Philippe Alliet Chinon Vieilles Vignes Cravant-les-Coteaux Loire Valley France. 12.5% alcohol; $16.00. Imported by Jeroboam Wines, 285 W Broadway, New York, NY, a Daniel Johnnes Selection.
One of the disadvantages of having eclectic tastes in wine is that you don't really know any wine very well. One of the advantages is that each tasting - even of a wine you've tasted several times before - becomes an adventure. The Internet and a couple thousand personal tasting notes enhance the adventure. For example, here are some of my ruminations last night as I watched the Packers and Seattle play football and enjoyed the last two glasses of our fourth bottle of this Chinon.
Daniel Johnnes, sommelier, wine importer (especially France) and author: Daniel Johnnes's Top 200 Wines (1998, Penquin Books, NY.), an unpretentious guide book broken down by reds and whites, and full-bodied, medium-bodied, and light-bodied. Each entry includes a brief history of the winery, tasting notes, and suggested food pairings, with an emphasis on value, not price. amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140513167/qid%3D941578827/002-4268957-3229048
Rabelais: 'Beuvez toujours, vous ne mourrez jamias.' (Home town Chinon boy, and a prescription for immortality.)
Wine Diary: "Rather than proclaiming it's profundity, Chinon's admirers praise its drinkability. "It's when you want a wine for dinner with friends - and you know you'll need three or four bottles", one restauranteur remarked. Chinon is touted for its easy, pleasurable aspects by vignerons in the region (who are also known to need three or four bottles for the average lunch). But, the truth is, we've given up serving Chinon to friends; our mouths are tired of puckering up from its bitter tannins. In our opinion, it is too angular and briary for casual drinking." [A very pretty website report on the Chinon area and its wines.]
Robert Millman [during Executive Wine tasting seminar]: "The 'skinny' on Cabernet Franc has changed dramatically in recent years. Stepping out of the shadow of its big cousin Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc has proven to be more than a mere blending grape, capable of achieving dramatic heights on its own. Moreover, successes with this grape have come from a wide range of viticultural regions. A well-made Cabernet Franc is a seductive wine, stressing exotic perfume, sweet and sexy fruit, and a surprisingly concentrated core. However, it can become herbaceous, stemmy, vegetable. Usually, well made Cabernet Franc had good acidity and fairly light tannins. At the end of the tasting, Millman concluded by saying Cabernet France "needed some help from its friends"; generally, it was better for blending than on its own. wine-lovers-page.com/forum/tasting_notes/messages/5847.html
Johnson: "Chinon is a juicy, variably rich Cabernet Franc from Touraine; Alliet is a top grower."
Jacqueline Freidrich: "A Bordeaux fanatic, Alliet [excellent] fine-grained, oak-aged Chinons from eight hectares of vines, either on clay and gravel or on the gravelly, sandy soils of the banks of the Vienne." A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire (1996, Henry Holt and Co., NY).
Robert Parker: "I am not fond of the wines of Chinon, but that does not stop me from admiring some of the best producers. Several are minimal interventionists turning out handcrafted wines that deserve to be tasted…. On occasion I have had some impressive bottles of old vine cuvées of Chinon from the likes of Charles Joguet and Olga Raffault, but by and large I have found the majority of these wines (made from 100% Cabernet Franc) to be entirely too vegetal and compact for my tastes. Hence I did not expect much from Domaine Alliet, a producer I knew nothing about ... but was I in for a surprise. The real stunner was the 1995 Chinon Vieilles Vignes. It offers exceptional richness, as well as gorgeous raspberry and cassis aromas, and sweet, rich, jammy flavors, with a nice wallop of toasty, smoky new oak (the wine spent one year in 50% new oak barrels). This is a gorgeous, rich, un-Chinon-like wine that could fool many an expert in a blind tasting." WA, no. 107, October 31, 1996, pages. 30-39. [Brutal honesty? Tasting relativism? Proof of Parker's attempt to destroy individuality and local roots?]
Robert Callahan: "At Alliet, another French star, what's interesting is the new hillside bottling called Coteau Noiré. It's looking good in each release, but it does somewhat reflect Alliet's tendency toward internationalism. The wines are very clean and rich and new-woody and they could have been made by Michel Rolland for all I can tell. This bothers me. At least with the new top bottling the ripeness is even and age may bring the wine back to its local roots." <a>test</a>
Peter Weiss, Bertelli's, Clifton, NJ: "Try this, Bob. Parker really liked the 1995 but that vintage was very fruity. This is a better example of what to look for in Cabernet Franc from the Loire."
So, what does Ross think?
TN1: Clear red color; excellent raspberry and black cherry aromas and taste with overtones of smoke, herbs and "lead pencil", slight, mild tannins and very pleasant acids; medium mouth feel; long finish. Tasting four stars. [Tasted September 11, 1998.]
TN2: Similar to the tasting at Bertelli's; very satisfying, with chicken stew - lots of vegetables. Four stars. [Tasted September 13, 1998.]
TN3: Clear red color; excellent raspberry and black cherry aromas and tastes with smoky overtones, moderate tannins and pleasant acids; long finish with several berry notes. Four stars. [Tasted October 14, 1998.]
TN4: Janet: "Ugh! Tastes like beer." Clear red color; good raspberry and black cherry aroma but very limited berry and cherry taste with smoky and "lead pencil" overtones, slight tannins and noticeable, pleasant acids; long single note finish. Closed down? (I did get a bock beer taste this time, but the wine went well with braised vegetables and a bit of chicken.) Three stars. [Tasted February 9, 1999.]
TN5: Janet: "This is really bitter; I hate it!" Deep, clear red color; deep hue; very good raspberry and cherry aromas; very limited berry and fruit tastes, but with pleasing tastes of tobacco, herbs, earth and "lead pencil"; medium mouth feel; long finish with slight fruit notes and more pronounced notes of tobacco, herbs and earth. Worked very well with re-heated vegetarian pasta in a light tomato sauce, and later sipping while the Packers were demolished by the Seahawks. 4*. [Tasted November 1, 1999.]
