Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Friday, December 20, 2019 - 13% alcohol.

Moderately translucent and still surprisingly youthful dark cherry red color. Juicy, earthy and still quite youthful nose with aromas of blackcurrant juice, some woody pencil shaving tones, a little bit of earthiness, a sweet hint of cooked bell pepper and a touch of autumnal leaves. The wine is dry and enjoyably crunchy on the palate with medium body and bright flavors of redcurrants and fresh blackcurrants, some peppery spice, a little bit of woody pencil shavings character, light notes of autumnal leaves, a sweet hint of cooked bell pepper and a touch of ripe raspberries. Good focus and nice sense of place here. The overall feel is enjoyably structured with its high acidity and quite firm and even slightly tough medium tannins. The finish is dry, crunchy and gently grippy with long flavors of redcurrants, some sour cherry bitterness, fresh blackcurrants, a little bit of stony minerality, light woody notes of pencil shavings, an autumnal hint of damp leaves and a touch of chopped chili.

A very nice, fresh and still remarkably youthful effort for a simple entry-level Chinon for a large producer. Going very strong even at the age of 10 years. Although not a particularly fruity or ripe wine, this was a completely different wine from the rather thin and weedy vintage 2011 I tasted a few years back. This offers lots of classic Cabernet Franc typicity and while the wine seems to be drinking pretty well at the moment, I can imagine the wine will continue to develop at least another 5 years of so, if not more. Good value at 16,49€.

Post a Comment / View forceberry's profile
Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue (905 views)