On the banks of the Vienne
Chinon spans twenty-six communes in Indre-et-Loire, on both banks of the Vienne, down to its confluence with the Loire. It is one of the Loire's great red appellations — Cabernet Franc reigns here — with a small production of rosés and Chenin whites.
The terroir: gravel or tuffeau
Three main soils share the appellation, and they shape two styles. Along the river, alluvial terraces of gravel and sand give supple, delicate wines, pale in colour with crisp fruit. On the hillsides and chalk-and-tuffeau knolls, as well as the clay-with-flint summits, full-bodied, structured wines are born instead, deep purple in colour, made for cellaring.
This gravel/tuffeau duality is the key to understanding Chinon: a single grape variety, two expressions, from easy-drinking wine to cellar wine.
The style of the wines
Chinons from gravel offer raspberry, strawberry and a smooth, easy-flowing palate, to be drunk within two to five years. Hillside Chinons unfold stewed dark fruit, sweet spice and, with age, notes of game and undergrowth, on a dense structure that keeps for ten to twenty years — the 1989 vintage remains legendary. A benchmark Cabernet Franc, elegant and easy-drinking.