Charles Joguet "Les Charmes" Chinon Cabernet Franc 2020

"Les Charmes" offers a pure, intense and fresh bouquet of perfectly ripe black berries intertwined with spicy notes of crushed stones and a dash of lemon juice. Silky, fresh and refined on the palate, this is an elegant, juicy and intense Cabernet Franc with a dense black berry texture, fine and ripe tannins and lingering mineral acidity. The wine is tight and tensioned and leaves the palate hardly and with great intensity. An excellent Chinon for now and a decade or more.

The grapes come from a clay-limestone terroir planted with 30-year-old Cabernet Franc stock. The vine is of course harvested by hand, and its harvest is vinified in stainless steel vats. The ageing lasts 16 months and gives the wine subtle aromas of red fruit. It is a straight-forward wine, with crunchy and generous fruit, many tannins and with a nice finesse and freshness.

Since its founding by Charles Joguet in 1957, the estate has sought to provide an exquisite showcase for the terroirs of Chinon, based on a simple idea: wine as an expression of its region. Alongside his mother, the Widow Joguet-Malécault (whose initials feature on the foil cover), Charles Joguet produced his first cuvées. Between 1962 and 1976, the vineyard was extended through several different plantations: Les Varennes du Grand Clos, the Clos de la Cure, and the Clos du Chêne Vert. Today, it covers more than 30 hectares (mostly planted with Cabernet Franc) spread across more than 25km, with a wide variety of terroirs (alluvial soil, gravel, clay, limestone, etc.).