Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Tasting Note
Serious Loire Cabernet Franc with a bit of age on it, which is exactly when Bourgueil starts to sing. Almost black in the glass, with black fruits, violets and a lovely forest-floor earthiness on the nose. The palate is dense, round and velvety, the tannins softened by time in bottle. Proper autumn-and-winter red.
Drink it with: venison loin, wild boar stew or a mushroom and lentil ragout.
The Winemaking
Made entirely in wood: fermented in conical wooden vats with regular punch-downs and pump-overs, macerated for 18 days, then malolactic and 12 months' ageing in older oak barrels. Aged in the family's historic tuffeau stone cellars.
The Vineyards
Clay-limestone soils on south-facing slopes in the Beauvais, Brunetières and Bézards sites. The vines average 35–40 years old and are farmed organically and biodynamically.
The Producer
Domaine des Chesnaies goes back to 1869 and has stayed whole through five generations, which is rare in France. Jules Lamé helped replant the area after phylloxera, and the family have bottled under their own name since 1947. Today siblings Philippe and Stéphanie Boucard run 44 hectares, almost all of it Cabernet Franc.
The Details
Tasting Note
Serious Loire Cabernet Franc with a bit of age on it, which is exactly when Bourgueil starts to sing. Almost black in the glass, with black fruits, violets and a lovely forest-floor earthiness on the nose. The palate is dense, round and velvety, the tannins softened by time in bottle. Proper autumn-and-winter red.
Drink it with: venison loin, wild boar stew or a mushroom and lentil ragout.
The Winemaking
Made entirely in wood: fermented in conical wooden vats with regular punch-downs and pump-overs, macerated for 18 days, then malolactic and 12 months' ageing in older oak barrels. Aged in the family's historic tuffeau stone cellars.
The Vineyards
Clay-limestone soils on south-facing slopes in the Beauvais, Brunetières and Bézards sites. The vines average 35–40 years old and are farmed organically and biodynamically.
The Producer
Domaine des Chesnaies goes back to 1869 and has stayed whole through five generations, which is rare in France. Jules Lamé helped replant the area after phylloxera, and the family have bottled under their own name since 1947. Today siblings Philippe and Stéphanie Boucard run 44 hectares, almost all of it Cabernet Franc.
The Details