Clos des Capucins, 2019 Chinon
Cab Franc du Jour #145
Before becoming a vigneronne, Fiona Beeston developed a passion for wine at an early age that led to an accomplished career as both a wine merchant and a wine writer. After working her first harvest in Bordeaux in 1976, she went on to work for the great Steven Spurrier at his Caves de la Madeleine in Paris and as a buyer for the renowned caviste Lucien Legrand. Alongside her work as a merchant, she began writing, and for two decades contributed a regular column to France’s leading wine publication, La Revue du Vin de France. It was in the early years of her career, though, while travelling across France meeting vignerons and tasting their wines, that she developed a deep affection for the Loire Valley and a lasting friendship with Chinon’s own Charles Joguet, whose wines were a revelation to her at the time. So when the opportunity to purchase Clos des Capucins arose and the moment came to change direction professionally, Charles assured her that this was an exceptional terroir and an opportunity not to be missed. In 2010, she took the leap and became propriétaire-vigneronne of Clos des Capucins, with her first vintage in 2011. Recognizing that her vision for the clos would require some patience, she purchased a 1-hectare vineyard a few kilometres away in 2012, from which she produces an early-drinking style of Chinon she calls her Perfectly Drinkable Chinon.
A Brief History of the Lieu-Dit
The clos takes its name from the order of Capuchin monks who first established themselves in France in 1574. Over time, smaller chapters of the order spread across the country, and it is believed they settled in Chinon in 1604, establishing a convent on the grounds where the clos sits today, just a couple of hundred metres from the Chinon fortress. As was customary in monastic tradition, wine was central to daily faith and ritual, and these monks are believed to have been among the first to cultivate vines here.
Among the convent’s most illustrious residents was Father François Leclerc du Tremblay, who lived here in the 1610s. Known as Père Joseph, he rose to prominence as the right-hand man to Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII and one of the most powerful figures in France at the time. Though little known outside of historical circles, Père Joseph wielded extraordinary influence behind the scenes and is widely regarded as the original éminence grise, a term that has endured throughout history to describe a powerful adviser who operates out of public view.
Following the French Revolution, the convent and its grounds were dismantled and the land sold off, as was the fate of most church properties at the time. It was not until the 19th century that the original parcels were reassembled under the Napoleonic land register to form what is now Clos des Capucins. After phylloxera, a gentleman named Charles Moreau is believed to have replanted the clos with some of the Cabernet Franc vines that still stand today, though there is little evidence of significant winemaking activity taking place here through much of the 20th century. In more recent history, Rodolphe Raffault of Domaine Jean-Maurice Raffault managed the vineyard and produced the wines under contract from 2001 to 2007, after which the clos was sold to Domaine Baudry-Dutour in 2008. That tenure proved short-lived, and the clos was eventually put up for sale again, leading to Fiona’s purchase in 2010.
The Chinon Commune
The Chinon commune is one of the most historically rich and viticultural diverse in the appellation, home to a wealth of celebrated lieux-dits scattered across its landscape. The majority of the commune’s vineyards are on the north side of the Vienne River, spanning roughly 4km from north to south and 6km from east to west, with vineyards concentrated around the perimeter of the village itself. The topography undulates considerably, offering a wide range of exposures and elevations, with most vineyards sitting between 40 and 100m above sea level.
In the eastern part of the commune sits Chinon’s premier côte, the first in a series of sloping vineyard pockets that extend eastward across the communes of Cravant-les-Côteaux and into Panzoult. This is home to a number of highly regarded sites including Clos de l’Olive, Chêne Vert, Clos Guillot, and Coteau de Noiré, among others. The soils here are predominantly Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau with shallow topsoils of varying textures. Above the premier côte, at elevations between 80 and 100m, are pockets of deeper clays mixed with flint from the Senonian age, known locally as cornuelles or perruches depending on their pedological composition.
Moving west toward the heart of the village and the Chinon fortress, another cluster of vineyards sits at similar elevations, between 80 and 100m, where cornuelles and perruches appear again alongside other Bartonian-age clays mixed with flint. To the west and north of the village, vineyards follow the perimeter of the commune’s highest points at elevations generally between 55 and 80m, dominated by Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk with pockets of millarges and other tuffeau alterations, and topsoils that vary considerably in texture. It is in this western part of the commune, stretching a little over a kilometre from the Chinon fortress, that we find an important côte clustered with vineyards of historical and religious significance, including Clos des Capucins, Clos de l’Hospice, Clos de la Lysardière, Saint-Louans, Satis, and Clos du Parc.
Clos des Capucins
The clos itself is a true walled enclosure of 1.3 hectares, divided into four parcels on an east-facing slope that looks directly across to the Chinon fortress, roughly 250m away. The slope is moderately steep, ranging in elevation from around 63 to 80m above sea level. Two smaller parcels sit toward the bottom of the slope, directly above Clos de l’Hospice, and it is here that the oldest vines in the clos are found, estimated at 90 to 100 years of age. These old vines serve as the source material for Fiona’s replantings via massale selection. The soils at the base of the slope are quite shallow, with a clayey-sand topsoil over Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau carrying a slight influence of millarges. The two parcels at the top of the slope, to the west of the original buildings, contain younger vines of around 45 years. The soils here are somewhat deeper and richer in texture, though the yellow tuffeau chalk is still encountered within 100cm of the surface. A passionate advocate of biodynamics, Fiona converted the clos to biodynamic viticulture upon taking ownership.
In the Cellar
Yields at the clos are very low, averaging just 15 to 17 hl/ha. The fruit is hand-harvested, hand-sorted, and hand-destemmed, with the whole berries fermented in 50hl oak foudres using indigenous yeast. Total skin contact runs from around one month to six weeks depending on the vintage, with very little intervention by way of extraction, just occasional light pump-overs as needed. The wine is then aged for around two years in used barrels sourced from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, in the same tuffeau cellars the Capuchin monks would have used for winemaking more than 400 years ago.
Wine Details
Producer: Clos des Capucins (Fiona Beeston)
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Chinon
Lieu-Dit: Clos des Capucins
Soil: Shallow clayey-sand over the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk
Alcohol: 13.2%