That’s right. You heard me. Aged Chinon.
Well, I was in the NYC doing my thing, mostly tearing up it, when I stumbled onto a bottle of 1990 Chinon ‘Les Picasses’ from Olga Raffault at Astor Wine & Spirits in Soho (Kick ass shop- check it out). The wino in me started geekin’ out and within minutes I am on the sub with a freshly purchased bottle of juice, painfully excited to pop this thing open. Unfortunately, I was meeting a group of wine peeps for dinner where I needed to bring an impressive bottling, so I had to bide my time by looking for myself on the ruthless streets of New York- actually, I think I went shopping, maybe had a light lunch.
Anyways, turns out this 20 year old Chinon is da BOMB- that’s assuming: A. you like Chinon to begin with because the flavor profile of Old World Cab Franc tends to be an ‘acquired’ taste and B. you like aged wine. With that disclaimer securely in place, this wine rocked!!! It had no apparent fruit but bell pepper and a confluence of dried herbs completely satiated my interest factors, while impressively maintaining its structure. The tannins had softened with age, but the remaining acidity provided enough structure so as to give presence to the wine on the palate. Super Rad and Super Delicious.
So the moral of this story: If you dig funky wine and come across some aged Chinon, BUY IT! You will not be disappointed.
This be the proof!
-Ballstein
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