December 7, 2021 - PnP - Delicate loam, sweet dark cherry, and green pepper foliage. Palate reflects the nose - seamless integration with a medium body and plenty of brightness. Finishes on a herbaceous note sliding to dark wood (bark/ oak?) to slightly puckering tannins. Compelling, delicate, and integrated. Paired with turkey burger bolognese with mixed mushrooms and linguine. Excited to follow several remaining bottles...
January 12, 2020 - Blood and minerals, with dark, savory cherry fruit and a perfectly light touch of green. Fresh and resolved with a silky texture. Totally integrated and delicious.
December 11, 2019 - Dark fruit (cherry, blueberry), pepper, herb, slight olive, good acidity. Slight chalk. Earth. Lingering finish. Really enjoyable.
August 31, 2019 - Last bottle a year ago. Really starting to come around. Sweet loam and manure with bell pepper plant and sour cherry on the nose. Sour cherry and a peppery herbaceousness with plenty of acid and mouth filling tannin. Medium bodied, young on its feet and a step above the last bottle, the finest example of a refined chinon I’ve come across. Paired magnificently with linguine with red pepper pesto with pecan and mushroom.
November 23, 2018 - Followed over two days. Nose seems a bit reticent; notes of sweet, lifted dark cherry and a bit of green pepper foliage. Dark cherry with hints of kirsch like sweetness on the palate with vivid fruit quality. Quickly transitioning to a sweet, mouth filling tannin with a lengthy mineral laden finish. Just a bit thin on the mid-palate. Medium bodied, smooth and refined. Looks like this will improve. Drank unaccompanied, envisioning a pairing of Swiss steak braised with bell pepper and tomato.
January 31, 2018 - Dark fruit (cherry, slight blueberry), slight cracked pepper, chalk, good acidity. Pretty smooth. Lingering finish. Really enjoyable.
December 9, 2017 - P&p; drinking well right away. Wonderfully saline dark-reddish fruit, fresh, pure, with some savory/mushroomy, pungent, delicately earthy complexity/depth. Good acidity. Medium bodied, with some smoothed out tannic grip left, while staying light in weight and very drinkable. Tasty, balanced. Highly moreish, thanks in part to the pronounced salinity; when the bottle was finished, I wished it was a 1 liter. Good stuff! Seems like drink or hold.
April 2, 2017 - Forest floor, some dark fruits on the nose and showing more depth on the nose than the taste. Acid and tannin take to the background, alcohol not even noticeable. Not the expected weight, elegant as chinon can be. Chalky, some pucker, a beautiful drink for an afternoon in the garden in Spring at 75 degrees in the San Francisco Bay area. This will take you to the Loire without out plane ticket, for now. Drinking well on PNP, 3-4 hour decant welcome and a decade left although improvement should be unnoticeable. Lovely wine .
June 30, 2016 - See previous notes, and this was served out of magnum as well. wonderful example of a cab franc from this vintage.
April 13, 2016 - Another excellent bottle. Just delicious and ready to drink now. Why wait?