Domaine Bernard Baudry, Les Granges Chinon 2024

Producer: Le Rocher des Violettes
Region: Chinon, Loire Valley, France
Varietals: 100% Cabernet Franc
Viticulture: Certified Organic
Category: Red
Size: 750 ml

 If Chinon’s grandest wines come from the upper slopes, where tuffeau limestone yields Cabernet Franc with deep flavors, a firm structure, and a remarkable capacity for aging, the appellation’s most charming bottlings come from the flatter river banks covered in alluvial sand and gravels. The Baudrys source their cuvée Les Granges from such loose, well-draining soils, whose tendency to warm up quickly in sunny weather favors ripening and avoids any of the austere, vegetal notes for which Cabernet is infamous.
     What Les Granges lacks in tannic structure, it makes up for in irresistible fruit and heady floral aromas. This is Loire Cabernet in its purest form, low in alcohol but high in perfume, which the Baudrys harness through low-intervention techniques like aging only in concrete and bottling unfiltered with barely any sulfur. That suave, silky texture is a delight when it swishes over the palate, especially when matched to a simple meal from fresh ingredients. A cool glass of this cuvée proves that magic is not just in the air, but in Chinon, it’s also in the soil.

—Anthony Lynch