Dark and developed, this red features integrated tannins on a well-knit structure, while acidity underscores the ripe dark berry fruit and imparts good energy. Savory herbal notes emerge on the long finish. Drink now through 2025. 1,000 cases imported.??–AZ??Region: France / Loire / Chinon Select to Add

Picked early, on the 1st of September, the 2014 Chinon Les Picasses is from limestone soils and was aged for 12 months in 50-hectoliter foudres. The wine is dark and offers a clear, fresh and concentrated bouquet of dark fruits and spices. Full-bodied, ripe and intense yet very fresh and vital in its chalky minerality, this is a very elegant, silky textured yet firmly structured, very promising Chinon with a long finish. Very fine tannins.

Colored like an Alpine Pinot Noir (bright purple), the 2013 Chinon Les Picasses opens with a deep, clear, fresh and intense, well-concentrated and slightly toasty red and black fruit aroma on the nose that is less rich, ripe and deep compared to 2014 but spicy, pure and characterful. The palate is silky, sweet and elegant, perfectly balanced, showing very fine and stimulating, finessed and salty acidity along with remarkably fine tannins. The finish is tight and concentrated and intensely aromatic and floral yet always pure, fine and fresh, with red fruit and fleshy cherry flavors. A great drinking pleasure. This is indeed an excellent wine from a difficult vintage, and it has developed so well after I first encountered it three years ago. To be honest, I love this 2013.

This has hit a nice mature phase, with the cherry and red currant fruit turning supple and the olive and bay leaf notes losing their frankness and fading gently into the modestly structured finish. Drink now through 2020. 400 cases imported.??–JM??Region: France / Loire / Chinon Select to Add

From a good vintage (picked pretty late on October 15th), the dark purple colored 2012 Chinon Les Picasses has a perfectly ripe and concentrated bouquet, displaying floral aromas along with concentrated and elegant fruit aromas. Smooth, round and elegant on the palate, this is a generous, fresh and well-structured Chinon with a very intense and complex finish that is as mineral fresh as it is perfectly round and ripe. This is a great and vital Les Picasses. A grand vin with enormous aging potential. Lots of licorice on the finish. Tasted at the domain in May 2018.