Olga Raffault, 2008 Chinon 'Les Picasses'

No.49 | What's In My Glass

The holidays are a time for reflection in my world, and there is one wine in particular that means a great deal to me, and that is the Les Picasses from Chinon’s Olga Raffault. While this wasn’t the wine that initiated my love of Cabernet Franc, it was the wine that made me decide definitively to launch Cab Franc Chronicles. It was a bottle of the 1982 vintage that I enjoyed back in 2017 while on a brief visit to New York City. I knew in that moment that I needed to share this obsession I have with this grape in a more serious way. Since then, I have had numerous bottlings of Olga Raffault’s Les Picasses, young and old, warm vintages, cool vintages, and everything in between, and it has remained my North Star ever since.

Chinon has a wealth of exceptional vineyards, but Les Picasses is among a small handful that have been elevated to “grand cru” status by the Chinon AOC. Located in Beaumont-en-Véron, the vineyard is situated on the côte, just outside the village itself. About one third of the vineyard is on a south-facing slope, while the other two-thirds sit on a plateau with a slight northern exposure. While many vignerons have parcels here, it is the bottling from Olga Raffault that remains the benchmark for this site with the estate owning about 7 of the lieu-dit’s 24 hectares.

The 2008 that I enjoyed this Christmas Eve was a cellar release direct from the domaine, which I bought just recently along with a some of the 2009. The 2008 vintage was a classic year by all accounts, although would likely be considered “cool” if measured against more recent vintages. Already showing some nice tertiary development, with notes of damp autumn leaves, forest floor and a touch of mushroom, it is still exhibiting all the classic small red and dark fruited notes that haven’t quite evolved into the dried spectrum. What defines the Les Picasses bottling for me though is its balance and its structure. Regardless of the vintage, it always exhibits a very fine structure, with velvety tannins, and while there is a marked presence of the tuffeau chalk that gives this wine verticality and levity, it always shows wonderful breadth, depth and persistence. The 2008 is lighter on its feet compared to the 2009 and 2005, both of which I’ve enjoyed recently, and is (for lack of a better description) très digeste,¹ which I think is one of the hallmarks of this vintage. If you have a 2008 in your cellar, I think it has plenty of life left in it, but is in a particularly delicious drinking window at the moment, and I suspect it should hold in this place for at least 5 or more years. At around $50USD (30EUR), it remains one of the great values for aged Loire Valley Cabernet Franc, and one that I couldn’t recommend more.

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From the Archives!

Should you wish to do a really deep dive on Olga Raffault, Chinon’s Véron Peninsula and Les Picasses, I featured a 2001 vintage as part of an Instagram Live I did on Cabernet Franc Day in 2022. It is available to watch on YouTube with time stamps for easy navigation.

1. The French have a very rich vocabulary for describing wine, and I suppose “très digeste” would translation to “drinkability” but there’s also an ease and refreshing character that comes with “très digeste.”