93 John Gilman - View from the Cellar

"The 2019 Chinon “les Peuilles” from Domaine Olga Raffault is nicely low octane in this vintage, coming in at a svelte 12.5 percent octane. As I have mentioned in the past, these vines are planted close to the Vienne River on clay and flint soils, with the wine raised for one year in chestnut foudres and a second year in stainless steel prior to bottling. The 2019 les Peuilles offers up a deep and classy nose of black cherries, cassis, tree bark, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, 25 espresso and plenty of smokiness in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of black fruit, good soil signature and grip, ripe, seamless tannins and fine length and grip on the youthful finish. This will be a lovely wine once it has had a bit of cellaring time to soften up its backend tannins. 2029-2075+."