2015 Bernard Baudry, Chinon, Les Granges, Loire Valley, France.
The 2015 Baudry is ripe with fruity appeal to go with classic terroir charm showing dark fruits, bell pepper, earth and mineral freshness, this is a really lovely little Loire Valley Cabernet Franc that offers a lot of value and is a great way to explore Chinon Rouge for the first time. Bernard Baudry and son Matthieu farm all organic and craft small batches of Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc from Chinon, they hand pick every bunch of grapes, everything gets de-stemmed and everything is gravity fed, they ferment with native/natural yeasts and aged in a combination of wood and cement tanks and neutral cask/barrels depending on the plot/site, with this Les Granges being fermented and aged in exclusively cement, fermentation lasts about 15 days and the Cabernet Franc spends between 7 and 10 months in concrete vat before bottling, this example is fresh and vibrantly flavored with smooth tannins. The 2015 vintage shows the years warmth and this Les Granges is fairly impressive with density and rich layers, it almost feels creamy on the palate, certainly no wood was needed here, delivering blackberry, sweet cherry, plum and tart currant fruit along with minty herb, bell pepper, crushed violets, dusty stones, leather and a hint of licorice. With air this wine adds hints of iron, chalk, lavender oil and cranberry notes giving a sense of complexity, even though this little Chinon, which was grown on sand and gravel soils from vines planted in the mid eighties, is simply joyous and easy to love, much less serve or austere than can be the case, in fact this vintage is pure and opulent, drink now.
($24 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive
