Loire Reds
by Anthony Lynch
2023 Chinon “Les Granges”
France | Loire
Can Cabernet Franc taste any more pure than this? Les Granges is the Baudry cuvée to drink in its youth, while the perfume of rose petals and brambly berries is at its most vivid and vibrant. At the domaine recently, it pained me to spit out each taste—damned professional duty!—but with the wine now arrived, I can confirm it’s that much more enjoyable when you let each sip go down all the way. With a slight chill, it’s about as gulpable as they come.
If you’ve had a wine from Clos Canarelli, then you are already familiar with the work of Antoine Pouponneau, a key player for years at southern Corsica’s all-star domaine. Recently, Antoine and his wife, Alice, founded their very own domaine in their native Anjou based on the same biodynamic, low-intervention principles that led Antoine to success at Canarelli. The difference is that here they farm old-vine Grolleau and Cabernet Franc on a sunny, fossil-laden slope overlooking the Loire’s placid waters. This terroir, where Alice used to play as a girl, produces a dense, dark, and chiseled red that stands apart from lighter, funkier expressions of Grolleau. The rich blackberry fruit and chewy tannin will match nicely with wild mushrooms, earthy braises, and game birds.
2019 Bourgueil “Les Perrières”
France | Loire
The Breton family is perhaps best known for its rock ’n’ roll natural wines, raucous parties, and generally freewheeling attitude. But for all the influence Catherine and Pierre have had in the Loire Valley pioneering progressive farming practices and creating unsulfured vins de soif, they also hold a deep affinity for the region’s more classic styles produced from its noblest terroirs. Cabernet Franc planted in 1920 on a chalky tuffeau slope yields the family’s grandest wine, a brooding elixir of satiny fruit, cedar, and graphite built to please now and over the very long term.
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