Easily one of the blackest, most purple and dense, staining Chinons I have seen. It immediately makes me think, “Is this crafted for the American market?” But let’s not put the cart before the horse. Crisp and concentrated in the nose, very little green shrubbery or tomato-stem. It’s all spicy pie-cherry and pomegranate pith, fruit an amazing elixir of sharp stony vibrance and perfect charisma nearly knocking on Bordeaux-style. Deep black concentration, a bit of edgy green, peppery wood, a 10/10 on the delirium-scale, with suppression poised and ready under the mineral and pethrichor cloak.
And then you taste it. Gritty, grainy angst piles up in the mouth against a WALL of bright fruit. Succulent sharp strawberry and the kind of toe-curling acid-infusion that abrades receptors while stilling and calming the monstrosity of dense raspberry, cassis and peppery cherry. This is a mouthful of epic proportions, a blistering entry in the Loire-style sweepstakes, gorgeous pie-spice and ridiculous balance create a wine so unfathomably delicious, I guarantee it would woo even the staunchest of Cali-fruit and *bigger-is-better* club-member. But that is not to say it has sold out to the New-World sweet tooth and hi-alcohol, macerated leanings. It just is a FULL, RICH, wine, the fruit going on and on in the finish–buoyed along with acid–so oblivious to tannin it nearly obliterates them in its impeccable balance.
A wine like this makes everything *cab-franc* come together with nearly religious aplomb. You CAN’T not like this wine. Absolutely mind-boggling in perfection and dedication.
2017 JEAN-MAURICE RAFFAULT ‘Clos d’ Isoré’ Chinon Savigny-en-Véron France 13.5
Stephen McConnell 