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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.9 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 143 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by LW31 on 10/26/2023: Super tonight. Really elegant and pure cab. Lovely minty note. Good depth. This pristine bottle still showing in perfect spot. (801 views) | | | Tasted by ylkim30 on 10/7/2023: October 2023 Loire Dinner (Mathilde - SF): Fully resolved tannins, great length and concentration, and elegance. Textbook, archetypal Chinon is a good way to describe it. And I have such fond memories of the '85 Raffault Picasses; one of the wines that turned me onto Loire Cab Francs. A trip down memory lane. (383 views) | | | Tasted by glou.sf on 10/7/2023 & rated 93 points: Loire Tasting (Mathilda Bistro, San Francisco): Perfectly mature, fully integrated wine with a lovely nose of dark fruit, leather, underwood, and tobacco. Good acidity on the palate with tarter fruit, cherries, forest notes, and a suggestion of sweeter fruit. Nice and lingering finish. Really lovely, perfectly aged wine. It's not the most complex wine but very satisfying and enjoyable. (1160 views) | | | Tasted by ohne_musik on 10/7/2023 & rated 91 points: Berserker Offline (Mathilde Bistro - SF): Textbook aged Chinon. Complex, especially on the nose, with old library leather & books, humidor, earth and macerated cherries, with a bit of green pepper thrown in. Lots of concentration and depth on the palate, and although it's clearly excellent and even beautiful in a way, it doesn't really move me for some reason. Interesting to compare my reaction to the 02 Breton Perrières, which objectively is the lesser wine, but has a je ne sais quoi that stirs me deep down. Others liked this way more, putting it up near the Rougeard for red WOTN. Perhaps it's just the Raffault style. I'm very sorry Olga, it's not you, it's me! (951 views) | | | Tasted by Oberunter-5 on 6/10/2023 & rated 96 points: Lovely; at peak
The wine at present displays a fantastic balance between primary and tertiary qualities. The nose on opening was completely earthy—wet soil, wet leaves, rainy autumn day in the forest, etc. With air, there emerged stewed plums, strawberries, raspberries, and pepper. The palate showed very similar qualities—but with lighter touches of red fruit—with enough tannic grip and depth to indicate this wine still has time at its peak. (1043 views) | | | Tasted by ccn on 12/18/2022 flawed bottle: This is on the line between weird and excellent. at first extremely bretty with an almost metallic nose, thought was flawed. After 2 hours in decanter it’s like … confit of sweet green bell peppers? Roasted over a smoky fire? Yeah, weird. But nice sweetness, ripe tannins and depth. I think theirs some VA going in here and I can’t say it’s entirely enjoyable but suspect this is bottle specific. (1389 views) | | | Tasted by Sotto325 on 8/18/2022 & rated 93 points: Another excellent example of how Cabernet Franc in the hands of the greatest producer develops with age a unique profile that delivers depth, complexity and a touch of elegance. The 1989 has more faint hints of the classic barnyard characteristics, plenty of moist fall leaves, smoky wood, dark cherry and dark wood. But it lacks a little bit of the gutsy,funky characteristics that make the 1985 and 1990 so irresistible. It is also a bit lighter. Drink now. (1397 views) | | | Tasted by IJC on 12/19/2021: Fabulous. (1772 views) | | | Tasted by SoundinBetween on 9/15/2021: Earth, tobacco, plush red fruits, and an interesting ginger (fresh spice) note which I've never picked up on in Loire Cab Franc before. No lingering tannin, medium bodied with an elegant finish. Very easy to drink, fully mature but seems like this would hold at least a few years before starting any decline. Excellent today, off the list at Bloomsday. (1985 views) | | | Tasted by NoTrollingerPlease on 6/18/2021 & rated 93 points: Online Blind Tasting: Cabernet Franc plus some Pirates: *** tasting note based on 0,1l bottle. Half of the bottle tasted completely blind on day one, other half tasted two days later ***
Glass: Zalto Universal
Clear, deep tawny color. Clean, medium intense, developing nose. Some barn, spices, green pepper, lovage. Very deep and quite fresh.
Dry, high, wonderfully integrated acidity. High, fine tannin. only 12,5% abv. Medium body. On the palate really spicy and a bit mature (15 years probably) and ripe notes. But also very fresh and juicy. Wonderful balance, very elegant. Silky, velvet texture. Very deep and with a lovely grip. Wonderful pressure and tension. Long finish with ripe red fruit and spices. CabFranc at its full peak! Such a surprise to see that it was already 30 years old! I would give it at least another decade, even though it will probably not improve. Wonderful experience! 93-94 (2374 views) | | | Tasted by William Kelley on 5/4/2021 & rated 93 points: Six years since I last tasted it, the 1989 Les Picasses is showing even better, bursting from the glass with a rich bouquet of cherries, berries, smoked meats, cigar ash and loamy soil. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with ripe tannins, bright girdling acids and a sapid, even carnal finish, it's a lovely old school Chinon in its prime. (4526 views) | | | Tasted by IJC on 1/30/2021: Astonishingly fresh, clean, vibrant, sharply defined flavors - unexpected in a bottle 31+ years old. An attack of flavors: tart, pomegranate and red currant; stem that I read as "green," a friend called "feral;" earth notes, all woven together, and exploding out of the bottle, like the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth.
Beautifully clear, sediment having solidified along the length of the bottle; the color dark yet transparent, a slight touch of garnet in the meniscus. Drank half the bottle and reserved the balance for round #2. Stay tuned...
Rated +2 on a scale of -1 to +3. (1973 views) | | | Tasted by ccn on 10/31/2020 & rated 92 points: Best Olga R. Vintage I’ve had of many. Nicely mature. Lovely intense minerality, acidity. Alcohol on the low side (12.5% on the label). Fresh. Bell pepper and tobacco. (1752 views) | | | Tasted by Sotto325 on 7/30/2020 & rated 92 points: Once again, direct bullseye.So nicely and lushly well balanced, rich, full of animale scents, beautiful cabenet franc aged dark black and red fruits, a nose of animal hide, moist dark earth, brambly scents and hay. Consistent with last two bottles so ready to drink with no decant and worth every penny if you can find it. (1956 views) | | | Tasted by DougLee on 7/29/2020 & rated 93 points: Utilizing the Ah-So pushed the cork into the bottle! Nonetheless a superb showing. Bloody, rusty garnet color. Nose of musk, plum blossom, cassis, currant, hints of stem. Layers of bulbous beef blood, wild sauvage, satisfying green leaf, and tangy red currant on the pliant palate. Nice acidity and smoothed tannin leading to a long finish of red currant fruit anchored in green notes deepening into concentrated grip and earth. Amazing paired with grilled lamb chops at Deception Pass SP. (1670 views) | | | Tasted by WST on 7/15/2020: Nice, although I prefer the '90. (1769 views) | | | Tasted by glou.sf on 5/25/2020 & rated 93 points: Consistently a very nice wine! The nose has notes of green/vegetal flavors, dark fruit, and bell pepper. This started out quite green, which blew away somewhat with air. Still, it was a bit more pronounced than the 4 previous bottles I've had. Lots of fruit still present on the palate with medium tannins and some leather notes. Nice finish. Tasting much younger than a 31 year old wine. (1669 views) | | | Tasted by Sotto325 on 5/3/2020 & rated 93 points: So tough to resist! Perfectly blended now, with a milder viscosity and a searingly focused cabernet franc barnyard edge: a ton of farm scents, plenty of aged meat, an elegant purple fruit nose, dark cherry ring, and a magical nose with charcoal scents that retains its robust fruit through the bottle. No need to decant. As time passes, this has moved over completely to the right side of the barn. (1837 views) | | | Tasted by BillBell73 on 10/9/2019: A lovely medium garnet in the glass with no obvious signs of age. Beautiful smoky, slightly vegetal aroma- I think I could recognize this anywhere as Raffault. Absolutely delicious, fairly mind-blowing with lightly smoked and seared lamb chops...this should continue to drink well for years. Truly magical wine. (2766 views) | | | Tasted by Rajbusto on 9/7/2019 flawed bottle: Cork had black mold 2/3rds down the cock which had shrunk it. No doubt some air had gotten in and had impact. (2689 views) | | | Tasted by glou.sf on 8/8/2019 & rated 94 points: Dark fruit, green bell pepper, leather, and cigar flavors on the nose. Good acidity with flavors of dark berries, black berries, tart plum, and blood orange on the palate. Long finish. Excellent wine, in a really nice spot right now. (2753 views) | | | Tasted by Sotto325 on 7/29/2019 & rated 92 points: Perfectly in balance and displaying the full rich and sophisticated side of aged, high quality cabernet franc. This ex-cellars release on again underscores how Raffault is the master of Chinon. Dark red/black alive colors greet the nose with that great mourvedre-like mushroom scent mixed with buried dark fruit, smokey wet oak and soil and a hint of forest green. Smooth till bottle’s end. No decant needed. (2699 views) | | | Tasted by fred o. on 4/27/2019: movie night (in spirit, Santa Barbara, CA): opaque lightly browned ruby, some sediment. Nose tomato and green pepper, savory. Palate silky red fruit, nice depth; still seems young. Outstanding QPR. 92 pts (2809 views) | | | Tasted by prof b on 4/13/2019 & rated 91 points: My birthday celebration, 2019 edition: Drank side by side with 1989 Pichon Baron and I preferred the Raffault. The fruit is somewhat muted compared with what I expected based on other notes but the tertiary elements were there to provide reasonable complexity. A really nice wine. (2454 views) | | | Tasted by salil on 4/13/2019 & rated 89 points: Nice showing. Doesn't show quite the intensity I recall from my experiences 5-6 years ago - the fruit seems to be dialed back in terms of intensity and brightness, though there's plenty of savoury earthiness, a whiff of bell pepper, and a touch of leathery funkiness apparent on the nose as well which all add complexity without detracting. I liked it, though it seems a touch past peak. (2449 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, May/Jun 2023, Issue #105, In Praise Of Properly-Aged Loire Valley Red Wines (5/1/2023)
(Chinon “les Picasses”- Domaine Olga Raffault) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (3/30/2017)
(Olga Raffault, Les Picasses Chinon Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jan/Feb 2017, Issue #67, The 2015 Vintage In the Loire Valley (Part Two) and Plenty of Older Chinon Notes
(Chinon “les Picasses”- Domaine Olga Raffault) Login and sign up and see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Sep/Oct 2008, Issue #17, The Loire Valley Addendum
(Chinon “les Picasses”- Domaine Olga Raffault) Login and sign up and see review text. | By John Gilman
View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2006, Issue #4, Loire Valley Magic: France’s Greatest Red and White Wine Values
(Olga Raffault Chinon “Picasses”) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Lyle Fass
Rockss and Fruit (8/27/2005)
(Olga Raffault Chinon "Les Picasses") One of the most legendary bottlings of the Loire Valley and to my palate the '89 is the greatest one ever. Devastatingly funky nose of barnyard, cherry fruit, exotic spices, touch of brett, leather, herbs & huge minerality. Very nuanced and constantly changing. Soft and lush in the mouth with wonderfully fresh fruit and ripe tannins. The fruit is very red and is intermingled with lots of spice. Touch of some unresolved structure in the finish but time will resolve that. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of View From the Cellar and JancisRobinson.com and Rockss and Fruit. (manage subscription channels) |
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