2020 Chinon, Rouge, Les Charmes, Charles Joguet, Loire
Critics reviews
Les Charmes hails from a 1.5-ha slope of clay/limestone. The 2020 is an elegant, light-bodied style yet has plenty of richness within its core. You can expect ripe blackberry and blueberry-lifted fruit in a charming style. There is a lick of lightly warming alcohol, but it's not unbalanced. The wine displays a subtle tea leaf and fruit cake-like fragrance on the smart finish, which leaves an attractive, lightly chalky texture.
A leading light in Chinon, the now-organic estate was founded in 1957 by Charles Joguet, a Chinon native sculptor and painter with an atelier in Montmartre. Joguet returned to found his domaine at a time when vines were part of a mixed farming approach – putting all your eggs in one basket was not the done thing. But the Burgundy wine lover was an artist, and artistic types tend to get away with taking an alternative approach, which soon became the norm.
The Genet family have owned the estate since 1997 and had partnered with Joguet for a decade before the takeover. With 30 hectares of vines, of which 28ha are Cabernet Franc and 2ha are Chenin, the estate makes a wide range of Chinons, but fine wine lovers will best know it for its cuvées Clos du Chêne Vert and Clos de la Dioterie.
Drink 2022 - 2027
Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous.com (August 2022)
About this WINE
Charles Joguet
Philosopher, poet, sculptor, and vigneron Charles Joguet is a living legend in the Loire. In 1957, he became a winemaker at the family domaine. Showcasing his considerable talents, he quickly became the modern pioneer of Chinon by producing some of the finest wines in the appellation. It is fitting that the wry smile of Chinon's most famous son, François Rabelais, should adorn his bottles.
Based on the left bank of the River Vienne in Sazily, Joguet was the first vigneron in the region to produce single-vineyard cuvées. In 1985, Charles joined forces with the Genet family to expand the estate. In 1997, the Genet family officially took over the domaine as Charles wanted to dedicate his time to his other passion, painting.
Since 2006, Anne-Charlotte Genet and winemaker Kevin Fontaine have run the estate and continued entrenching the Joguet name as some of the best wines from the Loire region. Organically farmed, the estate spans over 30 hectares planted with Cabernet Franc and two hectares with Chenin Blanc. Their top cuvées are the Clos de la Dioterie and Clos du Chêne Vert – the latter the product of 80-year-old Cabernet Franc vines, displaying an intensity and concentration of fruit, unrivalled in the region.
Chinon
Chinon is an important appellation for the Cabernet Franc grape, located within the Touraine wine region just to the west of Tours. At approximately 2,500 hectares, it represents a slightly larger zone than its neighbour Bourgueil. Part of the appellation, closest to its other voisin St Nicolas de Bourgueil, possesses light, sandy gravel soils to give an easy drinking style, while the remainder is blessed with a tuffeau subsoil from which the wines draw a finer structure and longevity. Neither style approaches the fullness of Bourgueil however.
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc, it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard – it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St Émilion, where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils.
Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire, where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape’s herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgueil.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
Buying options
Add to wishlist
Description
Les Charmes vineyard sits on a layer of clay that stretches roughly to one metre deep. It has a lovely, delicate perfume on the nose, full of violets, strawberries and raspberries, alongside a great freshness that’s rarely encountered in Chinon. Precise fruit purity balances with crunchy strawberries and wet stone on the palate. This cuvée undergoes seven to eight months’ ageing in neutral old oak, which helps it retain its freshness and fruit purity. It’s a stunning Chinon, and you may find it difficult to drink just one glass.
Yoan Bernard, Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd
wine at a glance
Delivery and quality guarantee