Clos de la Dioterie Monopole AOC 2020

A Chinon that brings together density and vitality: refined yet firm, elegant and earthy at the same time. 2020 was a year of early ripening and an advanced harvest. The wine is already enjoyable young, yet still holds real potential to develop.

The Clos de la Dioterie is the estate's most famous vineyard, already mentioned in the Middle Ages, when it was still fully enclosed by walls. This fairly flat plot lies not far from the Vienne river, right next to the winery: clay in the topsoil, limestone and mica beneath. The vines are 90 to 100 years old.

Single-varietal Cabernet Franc. Ten days of cold pre-fermentation maceration at 10 °C, followed by around four weeks of fermentation on the skins in wooden vats at no more than 21 °C. After alcoholic fermentation, the free-run wine and the best press wines are blended for malolactic fermentation, which has taken place in barrel since 2008. This is followed by 15 to 16 months in French oak, with barrels partially renewed each year — around a fifth of them new — then six months in tank to harmonise.

Juicy and fresh, with noticeable drive. The tannin shows a silky grain, the texture is creamy, the wine is full yet precise, carried by agile acidity and minerality. On the nose, cherry, dark berries and above all blackcurrant, alongside cedarwood, forest notes, cranberry, fresh tobacco leaf, a hint of sourdough and milk chocolate. The fruit remains fleshy, partly crisp, partly candied.

Charles Joguet took over the family estate in 1957 and began vinifying each vineyard plot separately. The cellars are hand-hewn tuffeau caves spanning over a hectare, where the temperature varies by less than half a degree over the course of the year. Cellar master Kevin Fontaine joined the estate in 2006, and it has been certified organic since 2016. For young wines, he recommends a Bordeaux glass.