Les Varennes du Grand Clos AOC 2016

An elegant Cabernet Franc with plenty of dark fruit that comes across as fresh and juicy. Alongside this: fresh foliage, a touch of pyrazine, ink, liquorice and crushed limestone. In the glass, a bright garnet red with a hint of brick red at the rim.

Les Varennes du Grand Clos lies between the left bank of the Vienne and the Clos de la Dioterie. The fairly flat vineyard is partly sandy-clay, partly sandy-gravel over limestone. It was planted between 1962 and 1976, with some of the vines around 40 years older still. Charles Joguet took over the family estate in 1957 and began vinifying each parcel separately. Today the domaine farms 35 hectares, 30 of which are planted with Cabernet Franc and 5 with Chenin Blanc.

Single-varietal Cabernet Franc. Ten days of cold pre-fermentation maceration at 10 °C, followed by around four weeks of maceration in wooden vats at no more than 21 °C. After alcoholic fermentation, the free-run wine and the best press wines are blended and taken through malolactic fermentation, which has been carried out in barrel since 2008. This is followed by 15 to 16 months in French oak, around a fifth of which is renewed each year, and six months in tank. 13.5% vol., dry.

A lively, vibrantly fresh acidity carries the wine. The tannins still feel very young but are already beginning to soften. The fruit is crisp and juicy, shifting between red and black berries with a touch of dark cherry. Plenty of power, yet everything remains open and transparent.

The cellars extend across a hectare of hand-hewn tuffstone caves, where the temperature varies by less than half a degree over the course of the year. Cellar master Kevin Fontaine, with the estate since 2006, recommends a Bordeaux glass for young wines and a Burgundy glass for mature ones. Over time, Les Varennes du Grand Clos develops notes of redcurrant and a hint of cassis.