Les Grézeaux Chinon Cabernet Franc

Super young still! Lush fruits and velvety creamy texture. Tobacco, chalk, lush blackberries, juicy cassis, juicy blackcurrant, pencil shavings, asphalt, pyrazene.

Tobacco, ashtray, pyrazene, smoke, roasted bay leaf, red currant leaves, juicy minty red currants and raspberries. Minerality. High acid. Elevated lean tannins.

Vintage 2017 | Well balanced. Serious. Spicyness. Textbook Cab Franc and still so much different from the Bourgueil we drank yesterday. Minerals. Paired with Cantonese beef and mango.

A little disjointed. Not up to the level of previous bottles.

First bottle of this was off but this one made up for it. Juicy blackberry, dried herbs, peppercorn, tomato leaf, soil tones, fine grained tannins. No trace of brett. Brilliant cab franc, completely ready

Flawed, on to the next one

Really pretty, joyful on the palate. Intensely fresh red fruits, and pink peppercorn spice with a whiff of violet and gentle pencil shavings. Not as ripe as the gorgeous 2018 but this has great lightness, liveliness and structure. A little bitterness on the finish makes this a bit more complicated.

Sourced from a single vineyard located at the bottom of Chinon's slope on alluvial/clay soils, the 2019 Chinon Les Grézeaux is currently a bit shy in terms of revealing its fruit flavors. It’s also a hint reductive with its smoky bacon characters, but that's unimportant. What matters is the core of fruit and excellent focus. It's very relaxed and fluid with mouthwatering acidity. The tannins are more serious than the front and midpalate would have suggested and betray a little grittiness. Aged 15 months in cement, this could be opened in one to two years, but the concentration and structure offer drinking over a decade. (Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous, October 2021)

Vintage 2017 | paired with meatpie

Vintage 2017 | Very lean and elegant wine. Drinks very easy, no frayed edges, supple and friendly. Very curious how this wine will develop. | Paired with veal meat