Charles Joguet, 2016 Chinon ‘Clos du Chêne Vert’
Charles Joguet is one of Chinon's most illustrious producers. Today the domaine is being run by Anne-Charlotte Genet, daughter of Jacques Genet, who was one of Charles's business partners who came on board at the domaine in the 1980s, and then later acquired the domaine from Charles when he retired in 1997. Anne-Charlotte is supported by winemaker Kevin Fontaine, and together they are working 40 hectares of vines in several communes in the Chinon appellation. Today we're looking at their Clos du Chene Vert, which is located in the commune of Chinon, and is arguably one of the domaine's top wines, along with Les Varennes du Grand Clos, which in the commune of Sazilly on the opposite site of the Vienne River.
So the commune of Chinon is one of only two communes in the appellation that actually has vineyards on both sides of the Vienne, the other being l'Ile Bouchard. On the south side of the river, we have a relatively small area of vines that is concentrated about 1.5km south of the Vienne, and these vineyards on for the most part sitting at a lower elevation and on the alluvial soils of the Vienne.
On the north side of the Vienne, the commune stretches about 4km from north to south and about 6km from east to west, but because we have the village of Chinon and several other smaller hamlets in the commune, the vineyards are a bit more sporadic here. The topography of the commune undulates and we have quite a variability in terms of altitudes and aspects. Most of the vineyards hover between 40m and upwards to 100m above sea level, and we have north, south, east and west facing slopes in this commune, which will have a big impact on sunshine exposure, which influences ripening.
The main influence in terms of the bedrock for the majority of vineyard sites in the commune is the Upper Turonian tuffeau, which is the yellow tuffeau chalk. And the prevalence of the tuffeau bedrock in this part of the Chinon appellation is why we have a large concentration of top vineyard sites here throughout this commune. Now the textures and depths of the topsoil as well as the influence of the sub-soil has a huge baring on the finished wines, and there is a lot of variability here across the commune with some topsoils being more shallow and other sites with deep soils with more of an influence of clay or gravel as oppose to chalk in the subsoil.
This wine is coming from a smaller section of the larger lieu-dit called Le Chêne Vert, which covers about 6ha. We are about 1km east of the outer limits of the village of Chinon, just north of the hamlet of l'Olive. This clos, which is about 2ha in total, is on a rather steep - about a 20% grade - SW-facing slope, so we are getting the benefit of the stronger afternoon sunshine, and the elevation is between 72 to 88m - you can see the Chinon Fortresse from the vineyard off in the distance.
This clos is quite a special spot - sitting at the top of the slope is a huge 800 year old holm oak tree. Yes, you heard that correctly. The original growth of this oak was planted by the monks of Bourgueil back in the 12th century, and a marker of this very special vineyard. This site was continuously planted to vine for nearly 1000 years before phylloxera, and then the site was virtually abandoned, until Charles Joguet purchased it in 1976 for about 4800 francs, so a little over $1000USD, which would've been about $5000 in today's dollars. While some vines were in the ground, Charles began to replant the vineyard the same year, so the vines today are on average about 40 or so years of age.
Some other things to note about this clos, because of this SW aspect and it's location, it is generally among the first sites to be harvested by the domaine, usually 10 to 12 days ahead of Les Varennes du Grand Clos in the commune of Sazilly. In terms of soil, we have only about 50 to 70cm of topsoil which is a silty-clay mix and then we hit the tuffeau chalk. And because of the slope here, this site is sensitive to erosion so the domaine has been doing a lot of work to regenerate the soils to prevent erosion. Also, because of the relatively shallow topsoil and the nature of the sub-soil and bedrock, so the vineyard naturally yields low at around 30hl/ha and this is because the soils are quite free-draining and also because of the amount of active limestone in the site, which restricts nutrient uptake.
From a winemaking perspective, this was all hand picked fruit and destemmed. Fermentation takes place in large wooden vats with indigenous yeast, and it spends a relatively long time on skins, about 4 weeks, with some regular pump overs and punch downs during this time. Élevage takes place in 1 to 3 year old oak barrels, where it rests for about 18 months before bottling.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Charles Joguet
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Chinon
Lieu-Dit: Le Chêne Vert
Soil: 50-70cm of silty-clay topsoil, atop Upper Turonian tuffeau chalk bedrock
Alcohol: 13.0%
