Olga Raffault, 2001 Chinon ‘Les Picasses’
Olga Raffault’s Les Picasses is a wine that is near and dear to my heart. It has been a wine that has been an important part of my Cabernet Franc journey since the beginning. I’ve had this wine when it’s young, when it’s older, from cool vintages, warm vintages, and everything in between, and it never fails to impress.
For five generations, the Raffault family has been farming vines on the Véron Peninsula. Today, Sylvie, Olga Raffault's granddaughter, and her family are running the domaine. They are organically farming 24 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines (and 1ha of Chenin Blanc). They make several Cabernet Francs, including their "domaine" wine, a fabulous rosé, and 3 cuvées parcellaires (single vineyard wines): Les Barnabés (Savigny-en-Véron), Les Peuilles and Les Picasses (both in Beaumont-en-Véron).
Through the beauty of technology, I was able to use some visuals for this presentation, which I don't often get to do in my videos. (Mostly because I don't know how, and that is a learning cuvée I'm not quite prepared to jump on at the moment LOL.) So, there are some cool maps of the area, vineyard and the geology/soils of the area. Les Picasses is an historic vineyard in Chinon and has recently been elevated to “Grand Cru” (sort of!) status by the Chinon appellation. The vineyard is in the commune of Beaumont-en-Véron, and is about 25ha in size. The history of the vineyard goes back to the 15th century. The name "picasses" comes from the term "pic" which referred to this two-pronged fork-like tool that was once used to work the stony soils. The vineyard is located 3.5km north of the Vienne, and an elevation of about 50-60m above sea level. The lower portion (lower third or so) of the vineyard is on a south-facing slope. Upper portion is on more of a plateau that is almost convex shaped, starting with a southern exposure, then arcing towards the north, with a portion with a more north-facing exposures. The bedrock is the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk, with mixed topsoils and degrees of stoniness depending on where you are.
Olga Raffault is the largest vineyard holder here with about 7ha. Their parcels are in the western portion of the lieu-dit. Their vines are around 35 years of age on average, and the family's original parcels have been in the family since 1928. In the best vintages, they will do a separate bottling from exclusively their south-facing parcels, which they call La Signulière. This 2001 was showing beautifully on the day. This was a solid vintage in Chinon, perhaps not a banner one. A good vintage, higher rainfall, good maturity, and an early harvest. Similar to 2000 in many ways. But, as I often stress, in this case, producer and vineyard trumps vintage in my opinion. And you can reliably enjoy and age Olga Raffault’s Les Picasses for decades.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine Olga Raffault
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Beaumont-en-Véron
Lieux-Dits: Les Picasses
Soils: 70cm of a clayey-sandy silt topsoil, atop the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrock
Alcohol: 12.5%
