Olga Raffault, 2012 Chinon 'Les Picasses'
Cab Franc du Jour #21
Olga Raffault is easily one of the most iconic estates in Chinon. The family has been farming vineyards here for five generations and has 23 hectares across the appellation, but it is truly their Les Picasses bottling that has become their flagship wine.
Les Picasses is a particular lieu-dit on the north side of the Vienne River in the commune of Beaumont-en-Véron. The vineyard spans around 15 hectares, sitting atop a Turonian limestone bedrock plateau with a topsoil of heavy clay and large pebbles. This vineyard has long been regarded as a top premier or grand cru level site in Chinon, consistently producing wines that are structured, age-worthy, and concentrated, and it is the bottling from Olga Raffault that has truly become the benchmark expression of this vineyard. The family owns around 8 hectares here, with vines averaging around 50 to 55 years of age.
They take a long approach with the élevage, aging the wine for 24 months in large neutral oak barrels before bottle-aging at the winery to give the tannins time to resolve and allow everything in the wine to integrate.
I will say that Les Picasses from Olga Raffault is one of those genuine “a-ha wines” for me - one I have fallen deeply in love with and always return to with great anticipation.
The nose is quite beautiful, showing red-fruited notes with a lovely purity of fruit: cherry, a little red raspberry, and now some tertiary development coming through as tobacco, cocoa, leather, and liquorice. The pyrazines arrive as pipe tobacco and dried herbs, adding depth and complexity rather than dominance. The acidity is vibrantly alive and the tannin structure is exceptionally fine and velvety, with beautifully rounded tannins that carry real concentration without sacrificing elegance. This is not a hedonistic wine: there is a graceful undertone to it, and everything is so beautifully integrated right now that it is simply singing.
This wine impresses me every time I open a bottle. If you are a Cabernet Franc lover and have not yet sought out Olga Raffault’s Les Picasses, it really is worth your time. It is one of the finest single-vineyard expressions of what Cabernet Franc is capable of in Chinon.
Wine Details
Producer: Olga Raffault
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Beaumont-en-Véron
Lieu-Dit: Les Picasses
Soils: Clay mixed with sand with large limestone pebbles, atop the Upper Turonian tuffeau bedrock
Alcohol: 12%