2018 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot

2018 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot

2018 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Le Clos Guillot Organic, unfined, unfiltered, naturally fermented. Crushed raspberry and herbs with a deep core of blackberry, signature Cab Franc botanical greenery, and musky earth. 100% Cabernet Franc. Close to the town of Chinon, Clos Guillot is a hillside vineyard with S-SW exposure, near the top of the hill, with clay soils rich in yellow tuffeau (the soft local limestone) and iron. The vines were planted between 1993 and 2000 and are certified organic like all of the Baudry vineyards. The fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed and moved by gravity into cement vats. Fermentation with native yeasts and without sulfur or temperature control lasts around two weeks. The wine is then aged in 2-5-year-old barrique for 1 year, followed by 9 months in cement tank. It is bottled without filtration two years after the harvest.

Chinon

An important red wine appellation in the Touraine district of the Loire, Chinon produces fanciful, light-bodied reds from the Cabernet Franc grape. Chinon also makes charming rosés from the same grape as well as white wines from Chenin blanc. But the reds give the area its fame. Often scented with fresh herbs, black tea and violets, Chinon reds show a lovely combination of fruit and acidity. However, styles have become more concentrated and ripe in recent years from improvements in vineyard management. Modern methods include planting grass between vineyard rows, using higher trellises and deleafing to increase sunlight to berries and therefore improve ripening. Even still, red Chinon is intended to be a light to medium bodied, refreshing wine to be enjoyed in its youth.

Fuller-bodied Chinons come from vineyard sites on the clay and tuffeau limestone slopes, usually from the southern exposed slopes of Cravant-les-Coteaux, and the plateau above Beaumont. Lighter styled wines come from the sand and gravel vineyards near the Loire or Vienne Rivers with the most refined examples coming from the area around Panzoult