Les Varennes du Grand Clos AOC 2011

A Chinon of great clarity: transparently built, balanced in every part, with fruit that conceals nothing. In the glass, a fairly transparent garnet red with a slightly brick-red rim. More than a decade after harvest, the wine shows remarkable freshness.

Les Varennes du Grand Clos is a flat vineyard lying between the left bank of the Vienne and the Clos de la Dioterie. The soils alternate between sandy clay and sandy gravel, over a limestone base. Charles Joguet took over the family estate in 1957 and from then on vinified each parcel separately rather than blending the grapes. Les Varennes du Grand Clos is one of the very first plots treated this way.

Pure Cabernet Franc from vines planted between 1962 and 1976; part of the plot is around forty years older still. Ten days of cold pre-fermentation maceration at 10 °C, followed by roughly four weeks of maceration in wooden vats at no more than 21 °C. For the malolactic fermentation, free-run wine is blended with the finest press wines. This is followed by 15 to 16 months in French oak barrels, about a fifth of which are renewed each year, and six months in tank.

Juicy, with polished tannin that still feels young. The fruit leans towards raspberry, cherry and blackberry, alongside a touch of tomato and bell pepper. The nose stays subtle: ink and liquorice, herbs and bay leaf, a hint of cigar box.

The cellars extend over more than a hectare of hand-hewn tuffeau caves, where the temperature varies by less than half a degree over the course of the year. Since 2008, malolactic fermentation has taken place in barrel. Cellar master Kevin Fontaine recommends a Burgundy glass for mature vintages.